Chest & Spine Strength: 54-Min Intermediate Yoga Class with Backbends

Place your feet down, interlace your fingers behind your head and then windshield wipe your knees from side to side and press the knee down actively so that you feel a nice stretch in the quads, the front of your thighs and hips. Because in back bends this is one of the muscle groups that is restricting us the most. It's not the actual spine, it's the muscles on the front that are stiff, tight and not used to really going to the edge of the range of motion. So twist your hips and use your butt to press and push the knee down.

Make sure you feel a really nice stretch on the front of your hips. The advanced version would be putting your ankle on your knee and pressing the knee actively down. Not necessary though, only if you want an extra 5% stretch. Keep going a couple of times from side to side.

Nice. Place your hands close to your hips, palms down, legs up, squeeze the feet together and then go 45 degrees side way and back to center. So you're twisting from side to side, resisting gravity with your core. Don't stretch your legs away from you, you're going with your feet more towards your hand than away from your hand.

So try to go 90 degrees or higher. If you want to go really low, go really low. I have to bend my knees to not knock into the wall, but bending the knees makes it much easier. So feel if you want really straight legs or somewhere in between.

This exercise serves two purposes, both starting our core muscles but also twisting our lower back. I had a really tough training yesterday, so I can absolutely feel this one immediately. Alright, grab the hamstrings, start rolling up and down. Three more.

And find a cross legged seat, so sit on your butt, cross your ankles, get your knees down and stretch, we're going to stretch our side body. So one hand in the ground, the other hand up and go from side to side in like one in breath and one out breath. So inhale up and exhale, big side stretch. Activate your arm, so the arm is strong, but your side body, your lats are soft.

The bigger you are, the more muscles you have, the harder this one is going to be, but if you can stretch out your side body, your waist and your ribs really well, then the backbends will become much easier. This is a really overlooked part of our bodies, the side body. Forward folds and backbends feel so much better when you're not stiff from your armpits down to your hips. Let's do a few more.

If you want to add on some wrist, elbow or shoulder movements, feel free. Everything that feels good and gives you a good stretch is perfect. Try to not hold your breath when you begin or end the move. Try non-stop breathing.

Switch the crossing of your ankles. Let's do some seated cat-cows. Catch your knees, inhale lift your chest and exhale nose to navel. Let's do five.

Take a deep breath. Two more. Nice. Let's get over to all fours and do a couple of normal cat-cows.

Inhale and exhale. Last one. Let's do an advanced thing. Step back slightly so your butt is still over your knees.

Walk your hands forward as if you were in down dog, a really low down dog. Then wrap your elbows down towards the floor so you're pushing your biceps forward. Then you look forward and try to go as deep as you can. Spread your fingers and don't move your arms.

Try to get as low as possible without flinging your elbows out to the side. Inhale look forward and exhale you round your spine and tuck your chin to your chest. We're doing cat-cows here as well. Inhale elbows down, look forward, straight arms and exhale chin to chest.

Try rounding your spine. Let's do a few. Inhale. The technique is really hard I know.

Exhale. Inhale look forward, try to get your chest low while you're pulling your elbows down. Exhale tuck your chin. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Nice.

Back to your knees, move your shoulders around. It's hard isn't it? To squeeze the elbows in and move your chest while your arms stay still, super hard. Let's meet in down dog.

Take a breath in down dog and stretch your calves. This position just never gets old doesn't it? Every day you step into your first down dog it feels like the first time. We're gonna go through the vinyasa for today.

So first plank of course. Inhale. Exhale low push up and hold here for a second. And then all the way down.

Keep your thumbs close to your nipples, squeeze your elbows in, lift your hands, lift your toes and press your feet together. So floating cobra, yes? It's a variation of locust pose. Squeeze the shoulders back, elbows in, take a breath.

And then hands and feet down, lift halfway up and try bending backwards so your whole upper body moves backwards. Squeeze the elbows in, inhale. Exhale all fours. Back to down dog.

Let's do it again. Roll forward, inhale. Exhale low push up, stay here for one second. And then nipples to thumbs.

Feet and hands off the floor, floating cobra. And then full cobra pose, hips down, elbows in, inhale. Exhale all fours. Let's add that one into the sun salutation.

Bend your knees, look forward, inhale. Exhale jumper float, jumper walk. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold.

All the way up, inhale. Stay here and interlace your fingers over your head. Stretch your arms as high as you can but try to make some space in the back of your neck. So arms move up and slightly forward.

So arm pits forward, neck is free. Inhale look up. And exhale release and fold. Inhale halfway.

Exhale low push up, stay for one second. Floating cobra, take a full breath. Keep your back engaged, cobra pose, inhale. Exhale all fours.

Down dog for three breaths. Bend your knees, jumper walk. Halfway up, think cobra pose, inhale. Exhale fold.

Pull your head down. Inhale all the way up, interlace your fingers. Lift and stretch and lift and stretch. This time push your hips forward and look up.

Neck is free, inhale lift. Exhale release and fold. Inhale halfway. Exhale low push up.

Floating cobra. Feet together, thumbs and elbows in. High cobra pose, inhale. Exhale down dog.

Three breaths then we do one last round. Bend your knees, look forward, inhale. Walk or jump. Halfway inhale.

Exhale fold. All the way up, inhale interlace your fingers. Try moving your arms back now but your armpits are still moving forward. So you're not squeezing your shoulders behind you, you're pressing them up high.

Inhale look up. Release and fold. Halfway inhale. Same in Yasa again.

Slot. Keep your back engaged, cobra pose. And downward dog. Bend your knees, look forward.

And exhale jump. Halfway inhale. Exhale fold. All the way up, inhale.

Interlace your fingers. Exhale fold. Inhale halfway up. Now we're doing sun C so step your right foot back.

Back knee down. Arms up and catch your elbows like we did in the first pose. Squeeze your inner thighs together. Lift your chest and hug your navel in so you're stable from the hips up through your core.

Lift your chest from a good foundation. Look up. And then inhale stretch your arms really high and a little bit back. Exhale hands down.

Vinyasa. Same in Yasa. Cobra and downward dog. Lift your right leg up.

Bend your knee, open your hips and step the foot forward. Back knee down, same pose. Lift your arms and catch opposite elbows. Take a couple of breaths where you find a good foundation from the feet to your hips.

Hips to your core and core supports your spine. Lift your chest and breathe. Arms up, inhale. Exhale, hands down, step forward.

Halfway inhale. Exhale fold. All the way up, interlace your fingers. Inhale and release.

Exhale fold. Halfway inhale. Step your left foot back. Back knee down again.

Lift both arms first like we did. This time place your right forearm on your right thigh. Then stretch sideways like we did when we were in a seated cross legged position. So your hips are moving down and your upper body is not leaning towards the right.

So hips forward and down, armpit up and sideways. This should feel really intense through your left waist, belly and hips. Left hand down, catch your back foot with your right hand, lizard foot grab. Catch your toes and pull your foot in towards your butt.

Deep stretch for the front of our thigh. Release vinyasa. Low push up. Breathing cobra.

Full cobra. And down dog. Left leg out, bend and open, inhale. Exhale step the foot forward.

Back knee down, arms up, inhale. Left forearm to left thigh, stretch sideways so your right arm is moving over your head to the left. Keep your feet and legs engaged, push your hips down and forward. Chest lifts and breathe.

Right hand down, catch your back foot with your left hand, lizard foot grab. Pull the heel in towards your butt. Release and step forward, inhale halfway up. Exhale fold and then squat.

Arms forward, moving from sun salutation B to sun salutation C to sun salutation B. So this is sun B. Into chair pose first, take a breath. And then inhale, lift your chest a little back bend into chair pose.

Exhale fold. Halfway up, inhale. Add in a crow pose, extra crow pose here before we jump back through the vinyasa. So jump back when you exhale and always come through this floating cobra first, engage your whole back body before you go into cobra.

Into down dog, stretch your right leg out, bend and open, come up on your toes, inhale. Exhale knee to nose, try to really engage your core here. One more inhale. Exhale right foot forward, setting up for warrior one.

Back foot flat, lift your arms, inhale on the top. And exhale interlace your fingers behind your back. Stretch and open, now really use your arms to stretch your chest. Your pecs are probably tight from lifting weights or jitsu, so stretch them out good.

And then when you exhale, go as deep as you can with your head, lift your knuckles over your neck. You can support your chest with your knee or go even deeper. Take a breath here. And then all the way up with your arms again, back toes in the ground, lift your back heel.

Hands in front of the chest for crescent pose. Use the crescent pose, find this balance in the legs and then twist sideways and hook your elbow on the outside of the right knee. We've done this one before in another class, so press your elbows down into your left right thigh and stretch your left leg back. Take a breath.

And then hands down, step your right foot slightly back for standing splits. Take two breaths here first. Spread your fingers and lean your body weight into your fingertips. If you can't get your hands flat, step your right foot back more and let's do five handstands.

One, two, three, four and vinyasa. Five. Floating and cobra and down dog, second side. Get your left leg bend open on your toes.

Inhale and exhale. Counter the back bands with a deep forward squeeze. Inhale up, exhale forward and squeeze, setting up for warrior one. Wide legs, arms up, inhale at the top.

Change the interlace of your fingers behind your back. Take a couple of seconds where you go really deep down with your hands without bending your back knee. Keep your back leg strong. Inhale look up and exhale fold slowly.

Keep your left butt pointing back, not out to the left. Get as deep as you want or can. One more breath. Then arms up, inhale.

Lift your back heel so you're in crescent pose, hands in front of your chest. Step one, lean forward. Step two, twist and step three, hook your elbow on your thigh. Keep the balance here.

If it's impossible to balance, put your back knee down. If it's too hard to place your hands together, cross your forearms instead. Hands down for standing split, left foot under your belly. Lift your right leg for two breaths.

Spread your fingers, look at your hands or look between the hands. Bring your body weight forward and with a straight back leg, five jumps. One, two, three, four and five. Vinyasa.

Same thing. Let's do the same round again quickly. Right leg up, inhale. Exhale knee to nose.

Inhale up, exhale knee to nose. Warrior one, inhale. Interlace your fingers, take another inhale and fold. Exhale one breath in humble warrior.

Then arms up, inhale. Lift your back heel. Exhale, twisting crescent pose. Take one breath here.

Hands down, standing split. Two handstands. One, two, Vinyasa. Meeting down dog.

Second side, left leg inhale. Exhale crunch it. Inhale, exhale. Left foot forward, warrior one, inhale.

Exhale interlace. Lift, inhale. Exhale go deep. One breath.

Crescent pose, inhale. Twist, exhale. One breath. Hands down, standing splits.

Two jumps. One and two. Vinyasa. Let's meet in child's pose, turtle pose, hands behind your head.

Take a few breaths here to finish the warm up before we start the standing sequence. Take two deep inhales and exhale through your mouth. One more. Okay down dog.

Start by stretching your right leg out behind you and open your hips and flip this back through a side plank into a flip dog. So your back foot is behind you. So you're engaged in your left side like side plank but you're opening your right side like a wheel pose. Take a full breath here in flip dog.

And then sit down in your butt first. And when you inhale next time lift up into flip dog and flip over to three legged dog. Knee to nose. Foot between the hands.

Back foot flat for warrior two. So not warrior one but warrior two. Circle up into an open position. Let's take three deep breaths here first.

Make sure your head is not over your thigh but over your spine. So your head is straight over your hips. Wrap your left arm behind your back. So I like to grab my left arm and place the back of my wrist on my thigh or on my wrist on back of my wrist on my waist.

And then reversing the warrior without stretching your right leg. So bend your right knee and use this left arm to kind of twist more sideways. So it's not a back bend. It's more a side stretch.

You're twisting towards the left. You can look down on your left leg. Make sure it's straight. If you want to challenge yourself look up towards your right hand.

And then back to warrior two but keep this left arm behind you. Either you place the forearm on the thigh like this and go for a bound side angle. Variational bound side angle. If you want to try slowly to place your hand into the ground and even wrap your right arm under your waist to connect the hands.

You can do that. I'm going to stay on my fingertips and really squeeze the left shoulder back and stretch the front of my left hip. One more second. Lift your right arm all the way up and stretch your right leg straight.

Now instead of releasing this left arm keep it behind you and try to first turn the toes to point towards the left. You're in a straddle pose and then catch your hands behind you. If you can't catch the hands you can use your jiu-jitsu belt or a towel or just grab onto the shirt and then stay here and do a back bend or if you feel like this is possible for you. Right elbow to the ground or just hang and hover.

Take a few breaths. Even if your left shoulder is tingling and sleeping just hold for another second. And then right hand to the ground. Left arm releases and circles up to the air twisting straddle.

Inhale exhale catch your right foot with your left hand. Inhale up. Exhale twist. Inhale up.

Exhale twist. Stay here for a couple of seconds. And then turn your right foot forward and get back into lunge. Right foot forward hands forward.

And then back knee down lift your arms. Inhale exhale twist. Do this same twist again. Catch your left elbow outside of the thigh and lift your back leg.

If you want to try it for even harder variation left arm comes down right arm comes up so you're not pressing your palms together you're really using your arms to leverage into the twist. Make sure your head is not moving right because then you look like a I don't know what a cheese pop so everything should be straight here from your head back to your left heel. Look down. Right hand down.

Left arm up for half moon pose. Alternative to make this more of a back bend catch your left foot with your left hand and open your hips and your chest sugar cane pose. Two more breaths. Left hand down.

Reach the hand so your right hand catches the left foot. Bound standing split or standing split foot grab sorry so now you can go deeper with your head and really try to lift use your right arm to lift your left knee higher. Breathe release the foot optional to do a couple of hands stand and shake out the legs. And vinyasa.

And meeting down dog take a breath. Before we do the second side place your knees down into the ground setting up for camel pose so instead of catching our heels this time we're going to do a variation with the arms arms out to the side push your hips forward and look up and then catch your left shoulder with your right arm so you're wrapping like the what we do with the kids the elephant so catch your shoulder and pull it down or if you can catch your left thumb and make sure the thumbs points towards your nose elbows up forearms away from your face so 90 degrees in the elbows. Now you start lifting your forearms and bending backwards take three. And release switching the arms catch your right shoulder with the left hand and stay here or try to catch your right thumb and turn the thumbs pointing towards your nose and then hips forward chest up lift your forearms as high as you can three.

Hips forward elbows up and release. Let's meet in down dog. Let's do the same sequence second side left leg out bend and open take a breath and then through side plank into flip dogs you're still inside plank but your left body left body side of your body is opening up in a big back bend sit down on your butt for a second and then through those poses flip dog side plank and three leg dog left knee to nose take a breath and step the foot between your hands circle up three breaths in warrior two. I know you're doing good since you're still with me.

Wrap your right arm behind your lower back so you can either grab your pants or you can just keep the back of your hand on your waist reverse your warrior without stretching your left leg straight so twist towards the right and look towards your ankle back leg straight big side stretch perhaps look up towards your left hand left forearm to left thigh or left hand to the ground. Roll your right shoulder back practice perfect posture inside angle pose left leg points forward and works towards the left so you're not pressing your thigh into your elbow you're pressing your thigh out left hand to the ground. Left arm high straighten both legs and turn towards the right straddle pose try to catch your hands behind your back if you can't just grab on to whatever you can grab on to stay here or fold forward. Enjoy the deep stretch in your right shoulder and your legs.

Three more. Left hand down right arm up for straddle twist inhale exhale catch your left ankle. Inhale up exhale twist inhale up exhale twist and stay for three. Walk your hands forward to a lunge again back knee down arms up inhale exhale twist and stay for three.

Walk your hands forward to a lunge again back knee down arms up inhale exhale twist towards the left right elbow left thigh straighten your back leg and if you want to try to go deeper separate the arms into a open twisted lunge or crescent. Hands down left hand forward right arm up for half moon pose you can if you want to try grab your back foot with your right hand for sugar cane stretch your left leg and try to stretch your right leg even though it's impossible try to use the leg to stretch your right shoulder. Switching hands so instead of lifting your head now try to lower your head and lift your right knee high high high high high. Let's do two handstands to shake it out.

Go straight down to your belly no vinyasa arms out to the side so arms sideways and then move your right foot towards your left hand for a belly twist. Get your foot as high close to your hand as possible and use your right arm to push into a twist. Left shoulder spine and hips. Switching sides.

Let's get back to our belly bend your knees and stretch your arms back so if you can catch your ankles catch your ankles but if not keep the knees bent interlace your fingers behind your back and let's just take a couple of breaths. Let's get back to our belly bend your back bend your knees and stretch your arms back so if you can catch your ankles catch your ankles but if not keep the knees bent interlace your back and let's just take a couple of breaths in a back bend where we have to engage to stay in the back bend. Take three. Hands down toes down push back to down low.

Take a breath. We're finished with the standing poses bend your knees look forward exhale jump forward. Sit down on your butt into both pose you can catch your ankles if you want you can hold your thighs or not at all. Take five.

So really engage your back and your core at the same time so be super strong through your upper body and just keep the legs engaged. Now lower the legs almost all the way down and lay down on your lower back low boat pose so crunch crunch and stretch crunch and stretch four three two and one feet down and then down hips up take three breaths five breaths in a bridge pose. So in bridge pose just keep your legs engaged keep lifting your hips. Roll down to your lower back and then sit up.

Take a little workshop on back bends so start to the wall and stand really close to the wall you can actually put your shoulders to the wall so instead of doing the full wheel we're going to do a quarter wheel so instead of having a flat surface we have a 90 degree surface it really is much easier if you're super stiff in your shoulders. So flip your palms back start with your hands really wide and turn your fingers out to the side so the thumbs are pointing down towards your heels. From here start walking out from the wall so that you're in a back bend with your arms as straight as you can get them. If you have your fingers pointing down and your hands too narrow then you won't be able to straighten your arms.

So you want to have as wide arms as you can so that you can keep them straight. Make sure the arms are straight and take three breaths here. You're engaging your legs and your belly and you're relaxing your neck and your torso. Then bend your knees get out of it twist a little and every time you come out of a back bend reactivate your core so crunch your belly and make sure you have the engagement of your core because you usually tend to lose it when you're in a deep back bend.

Let's do another round but this time we're going to look towards the wall. Start with the shoulders to the wall arms wide fingers slightly out for a good modification and then walk out until your arms are straight now tilt your head back and look towards the wall without holding your breath. Stay here for three deep. Belly is on.

And then get out of it gentle forward fold can even squat down. So every time you come out of a back bend you have to reactivate your core and do a nice stretch for the lower back which means a gentle forward fold never go into a deep fold but stay in a gentle forward fold like a mix between the normal forward fold and a squat. Let's try the same thing against the wall but we're doing the full bridge pose. So you can take a couple if you have some kind of blocks some kind of elevator placing them 45 degrees towards the wall like this is a really good idea.

So I'm placing the blocks like this towards the wall it's going to make the wrists like this pose much more. So from here you lay down on your back you always start lifting your hips and then you place the hands onto the blocks and then you lift up onto your head. So you're in a wheel pose with a modification that you don't have the palms flat into the ground. You always start here by super engaging your legs and then you try to lift your arms straight.

If this is impossible just stay with your head in the ground and try to work your elbows in and you still get a really nice back bend even though you don't go for one. But if you almost have the wheel pose the full wheel then this is a really nice way to get your arms straight earlier than otherwise would be possible. Let's try a wheel pose on the mat without the wall. So let's go through the details feet parallel important lift your hips and keep your legs on so what tends to happen is that the knees roll out and you lose both your butt and your inner thighs.

So imagine someone is actually standing on your thighs here that's going to help a lot when you imagine you're pushing someone up. Find a good placement of the hands and as you inhale lift up to your head. You probably have to reactivate your legs again and now before you lift your head off squeeze your core and really be strong through your belly but try to relax your throat and your chest. Always go up when you inhale and you don't have to straighten your arms completely but try to keep your legs as straight as you can.

Relax the neck and take three breaths. Slowly lower down to your shoulders tuck your don't tuck your knees but flip your knees in towards each other so lean them against each other and if it hurts your wrists then just move the wrists around and the core reactivation you can do here is to roll up to a seated position and do both pose and the low boat. Both of these together is a nice way to both stretch the lower back that we just cranked backwards and get the fire going in our core again. Because if we were professionals we could really just keep the core super strong all the time but when we're in the deep back we tend to forget and that's why we have to find that connection again.

Alright let's do some stretching good work guys let's do a forward fold bend your knees hug your legs and slide your heels forward half an inch by half an inch until you feel that you can drop your head and relax and if your forearms touches the ground that's okay then you can probably relax more but do what you can to get a medium 50-60% forward fold and relax. Take three more here. Lift your head lay down on your back for happy baby pose press your lower back down pull your feet towards your knees press the knees down and spread your legs. Next pose is upside down guard so roll back give your neck a nice stretch.

One of the best friends of back bends like we said in the beginning are side stretches so before you do back bends side stretches usually helps a lot and both before and after back bends twists are great so roll down to your back feet in the floor and then lay on your left side first and then hand behind your head and twist open. So side stretches, back bends and twists are the poses that are probably most underutilized both in yoga but especially in jiu jitsu because you never find yourself in a match in a deep back bend or a deep twist or a deep side stretch unless you're getting submitted so those three categories of poses are really super beneficial for you and me. Switching sides. Get back to your back lift your arms and legs and shake them out and settle down into a well deserved shavasana.

Awesome work guys five intensive days has come to an end.