To stretch my back muscles, the spine, the shoulders and the neck today I kneel on a mat and place my hands behind my head. Now I press the elbows together in front of my head and roll my torso forward. I hold the position a few deep breaths and straight my torso back up. Afterwards I press the elbows backwards and the scapulas together. I hold this position again shortly and repeat the exercise.
Good stretching!
Today is Christmas Eve, the birth of the Christ Child and therefore the harmonizing yoga asana called „Child’s pose“ (Garbhasana) is just perfect. It also stretches the spine and the back muscles and massages the abdominal viscus. But the attention of this asana is definitely on the relaxation!
To stretch my back extensor today I sit straight on the edge of a chair. Now I lower my head and my shoulders forward (thereby my lower back remains upright) and my thumbs look inwards. Then I start rolling my shoulders and my head back up. Thereby I tense my back and my shoulders and rotate my thumbs outwards.
Good rolling.
Today’s exercise for the body tense, the abdominals and the back muscles is really challenging.
Today’s exercise for the back extensor and the arms is quit illusory: It seams very easy because I sit only with my bottom on the heels on the floor and extend the arms forward at the level of the shoulders and hold them as long as possible. The first minute is quit relaxing but afterwards it’s getting harder and harder.
To strain the lower back differently today, I lay on my belly, move only the right foot under the stool – or if you don’t have one like this, under the couch -, cross the hands behind my head, tense my body and start lifting my torso straight up. Because the left leg doesn’t have any resistance I have to balance this unbalance in the legs with my back. After a few repetitions I move my left leg under the stool and release the right one and go on.
For today I found an exercise for the lower lateral back muscles, which trains also the mobility of the back and the spine.
The 5th asana of the 12 basic positions of the yoga Vidya is the fish (Matsyasana). It helps to relax the shoulders and the back muscles, strengthens the upper back, stretches the chest and acts activating and opening.
Normally I do today’s exercise on the rings, but it’s also fine doing it on a bar or a branch to train the abdominals, strengthen and stretch the shoulders and increase also the coordination skills.
As I mentioned already a few times, it’s very important to foster the mobility of the back, the spine and the shoulders and a very good yoga exercise for that is the Half Lord of the Fishes pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana).
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