Chair Yoga for Hips & Lower Back Release - Seniors & Limited Mobility

Hi chair yogis, Kirstie here. Welcome back to my channel. I've also got Cosmo asleep over here to the left of me, but he's excited to be joining us today for our chair yoga for hips and lower back release. This is a great little 10 minute practice. If you really want to break up some tension that might be happening in your lower back or hips, it'll be nice and simple and easy to follow. So go ahead and slip into something comfy, grab your chair and let's begin. So we'll start here today with just some simple cat cows. So we're really going to be moving into the spine because all of these muscles in our back, hips and legs are all connected by this deep connective tissue that we call fascia. So we really want to start to break that up and move some energy into those areas. So we'll begin by lifting our chest and sending our chin back just as much as feels good. And then on your exhale, round into your back and then puff up through your shoulders. And again, inhale, open up your chest, really feel that arch and then exhale. Let's round two more just like that. Inhale, open, exhale, round. Inhale to open, exhale to round. Good. From there, come back to center. We're going to take some circles. So just bringing your chest forward and then over to the right, leaning back into the left. And you can already just kind of start to feel that little pull in the side of your flank muscles, your obliques, right? And maybe these circles are much smaller than what I'm doing. You just listen to your body, a couple to the left and a couple to the right. Really just trying to break up any tension that we're holding in our hips. One more. That's it. Good. Now come to center and we'll begin by wiggling our legs out nice and wide. So we come into this nice straddle position and we'll take our left hand and rest it on our left knee and then take our right arm, bring our hand right behind our head and then just lean over to the side here. Keep your heart lifted, breathe in. And then on your exhale, bring your elbow towards your knee and just hold here for a moment. Feel that stretch. Good. Again, inhale to open, exhale to round and feel that stretch into your lower back. One more inhale and exhale. Come to center and begin again on the other side. Right hand, right knee, left hand behind your head. Start to lean over. Keep your chest lifted. Feel that stretch and then exhale round and close. Good. Inhale. Lift. Exhale. Close. Two more. Inhale. Lift. Exhale. Close. Last one. Breathe in and breathe out. Good. Center and release those hands. Wiggle your feet back together here. Wonderful. Now we'll take that left leg and we'll send it out in front of us. Flex your toes back towards your face. Now you might start to feel this already traveling up the hamstring and into your glutes. And if so, perfect. That's what we're going for. You'll begin to walk your hands down your knee. Maybe this is where you pause. Maybe you feel this enough, but if you have more space, you can reach all the way towards your ankles and toes. Now notice if you're starting to round into your back, we really want to lead with our heart and chest, which means we have to use the strength of our bottom foot to hold us up for three, for two and one. Pull it all the way back and then take your extended foot and lift your heel up off of the mat. Hold for three, two and one. Plant it down. Maybe you need to recenter yourself on your chair. Now we'll extend our other leg long. Remember toes flex towards your face, long through your torso, and then start to make your way down to your knee. Maybe your shin, maybe one day ankles or toes. Hold for three, hold for two and one. Slowly pull back the strength of that opposite foot. Push and lift in three, two, one. Good. Press your feet and wiggle your hips back. Now. Very nice work. Now from here, we're going to take a figure four stretch. So we'll take our right ankle and we'll cross it over our left knee. Now it's important here to keep your foot flexed so you can really feel that tension in the right knee opening up the outer hips. From here, just take your palms gently, gently press weight. So we're not pushing down. We're just kind of energetically using our palms to assist the opening in our hip. Nice and slow for three, for two and one. Good. From here, you'll take your left hand and bring it to the outside of that right knee. And then we'll take our right arm and bring it all the way back behind us. Maybe grabbing the side of your chair or the back of your chair for a twist. Now notice if you're hunching over to twist, we want to focus on lifting and twisting from our belly rather than twisting from our back. So lengthen and twist. Hold for three, for two and one. Back to center. Unravel. I'm already feeling better. Now we'll take that other ankle, cross it over, flex your toes. Now, even if your knee is lifted like this, you can still just give it a little bit of assistance and gently press your weight down. Not too far and not hard at all. It's just a very subtle energetic push for three, for two and one. Now let's find that twist. So your right hand stays to the outside of your left knee. Your left hand grabs the side of your chair or the back of your chair and twist. You may even get a little pop in your lower back. For three, for two and one. Back to center. Release your foot. Really good work. Now from here, we're just going to round into our back and tuck our chin into our chest and then grab a hold of your knees and kind of pull your weight back here, lifting your heels. So you really feel this nice stretch, maybe a little wiggle left to right for three, two and one. Set your heels down and lift your heart. Beautiful work guys. Our last exercise, we're going to take our hands and interlace them over our right knee. So we're really going to get this nice tight grip and then lift your right knee up off of the mat and squeeze that knee into your chest. Good. Now set it down nice and slow. You're going to feel that in your hips and lower back immediately. Lift and squeeze it as tight as it can go. Exhale to release. Two more. Lift and squeeze. Exhale. Release. Last one. Lift. Squeeze it. Exhale. Release it. Other side. Grab your knee. Let's pull it up, right? And maybe this is as far as your hip allows you to go. That's perfectly fine. Just go as far as you can till you feel that squeeze and then release. And down. Last two. Up and down. Last one. Up. Hold for three, two and one. Release. Now I always love to just break up any tension by just kind of padding out my legs. You can pad out the outside of your legs, your IT band. You can even pat into your lower back if that's available to you. Just break up any of that stagnant energy that's creating that tension. Give it some love and then we will come to stillness. Close our eyes for a moment and send our breath into the part of our body that needs it. So maybe today it is your lower back and hips. Just imagine your breath traveling into those spaces and healing you from the inside out. One final breath in together and let it go. Thank you so much for joining me for this quick practice for your hips and lower back. I hope to see you again soon on your chair. Make sure to subscribe and like this video and have a wonderful rest of your day. Namaste.