Written by: Crystal Smith (200 hour certified yoga instructor).
Do you have low back pain or struggle with sciatica?
If you do you could greatly benefit from some simple yoga poses that will loosen up your hamstrings, low back, inner thighs, hips, and piriformis muscles. Loosening these areas will help to relieve tight lower backs and sciatic pain.
Try holding each of the following yoga poses for 1 minute each. Focus on breathing full deep breaths in and out while in these poses. Try to make your inhales and exhales of equal length. For the best results perform these stretches in the morning and before bed 4-5 days per week.
1. Ragdoll pose. Start standing with your feet hips distance apart. Fold forward and grab opposite elbows. Keep a micro-bend in your knees to keep from overstretching your hamstrings. Try to stack your hips over your ankles. Let your upper body hang heavy. Ensure that there is no tension in your neck. You can gently sway side to side if you like, this will help you open up even more through the hamstrings and low back.
2. Seated forward fold. Keep your feet flat, as though you were standing. Spread your toes. Keep your collarbones broad and look out in front of you not straight down. Try to get your stomach against your thighs. Grip either your shins or the outside edges of your feet with your hands, depending on your flexibility. You can wrap the index finger and thumb around the big toes if you are feeling particularly open. Try to keep your low back long. With each inhale feel yourself growing long through the spine and with each exhale try to reach your stomach a little closer to your thighs.
3. Cobbler’s pose. Bring the pads of your feet to touch. Hook your thumbs in between the arches of your feet and peel the feet open like a book. Focus on keeping the collar bones broad by drawing your shoulder blades together. Press your elbows into your legs to help open them up. Focus on drawing your stomach towards your feet. Look out in front of you about 2 feet, do not look straight down because this will cause your upper back to round. Focus on breathing through any tension you feel through the inner thighs.
4. Side body stretch. Begin in an easy cross-legged position. Ensure that the foot closest to you is in towards your pelvis and your forward foot is slightly out in front of you, not stacked on your back foot. Hips should tilt slightly forward to ensure your spine is long. Inhale and reach your right arm up overhead towards the left, keep your lifted arm close to your ear. Look out under your armpit. Keep the side body long and feel a stretch from your right hip up through your right ribs. Press into your left hand to ensure that both your hips stay planted on the mat. Breath here for 1 minute and then repeat the stretch on the other side.
5. Fire-log Pose. Bend your right leg in front of you so that the shin is parallel to the edge of your yoga mat. Flex your toes to protect your ankle and cross your left leg over your right, bringing your left ankle to rest on your right knee. Try to draw your left knee down to touch your right foot but it is okay if it does not reach, as seen in the photo, this just means your hips are tight. You should feel this stretch in the back of your top leg. Ensure that you do not feel any pain in your knee, if you do feel any knee pain you should slowly/gently come out of the pose. Hold this pose for 1 minute and then repeat on the other side for a total of 2 minutes.
6. Child’s pose. Begin sitting on your shins. Bring your big toes to touch and have the knees either hip distance or mat distance apart. Walk the hands out in front of you, hands should be shoulder distance apart, press into the hands and sit the hips back trying to reach your hips towards your heels. Rest your head on the mat, maintaining a long neck and spine. As you breath feel your stomach against your thighs on the inhale and feel your belly button draw in towards your spine as you exhale. Continuously press into your hands and press the mat away from you to keep the stretch active and not passive.
I hope these stretches help you to relieve any low back pain or sciatica pain you may be experiencing.
-Namaste