Yoga for Lower Back Pain and Hips Beginner

 How to do the Yoga for Lower Back Pain and Hips Beginner butterfly stretch to relieve tension in your hips and back.

Gentle poses after your desk job will give your body much-needed relief. Learn more about the benefits of the butterfly stretch and how to modify the pose.

One of the first stretches you learned as a child may be the butterfly stretch. A staple in elementary school gym class programs, yoga poses were often used to cool off your sweaty self and calm your buzzing mind before heading to English class.

And your gym teachers may be onto something. According to experts, yoga postures can have stress-relieving benefits for both your body and mind, making it an ideal addition to your morning routine, bedtime wind-down practice, and beyond. . Here, details on the benefits of the butterfly stretch, plus ideas for modifying and developing the pose and tips on how to incorporate it into your day.

What is the Butterfly Stretch?

Also known as Bound Angle Pose or Buddha Konasana in Sanskrit, the butterfly stretch involves sitting tall on the floor with the soles of your feet touching. hands resting on your fingers, ankles, or shins; Yoga Renew Teacher Training by yoga teacher Lindsey Monal, R.Y.T. and knees widened, giving you your own set of wings. Then, you'll slowly move forward to bring your chest closer to the ground.

She explains that your feet can either be pulled closer to your groin or extended further in front of your body, which slightly changes the emphasis of the stretch. But in any case, the pose is generally safe and effective for loosening the hips and lower back, among other benefits.

Still, trying to figure out how to perform this step? Follow along with Monal's demonstration and instructions below.

• A. Sit tall on the floor with legs extended in front of the body and arms at the sides.
• B. Bend the knees and bring the soles of the feet together in a relaxed position in front of the waist. Allow the knees to open gently on either side of the mat. Gently grasp the toes, ankles, or shins and press firmly into the sit bones.
• C. While lengthening the crown of the head, begin to move from the hips down toward the torso toward the mat as far as is comfortable or until the upper back begins to round.
• D. Hold for several breaths and release slowly, returning to starting position with the back flat.

Key Benefits of the Butterfly Stretch

Despite its simplicity, the butterfly stretch can do wonders for your tight muscles and stressed-out mind. Here's what the pose has to offer for your physical and mental health.

Loosens the hips.

Monal says the hips are one of the biggest weight-bearing joints in the body, and keeping them in tip-top shape is essential to getting through the day with ease. "They're the foundation of your entire spinal column and they control the legs," she explains. "Any type of movement that you're doing, whether it's athletic exercise or even just in your life…the hips are an important joint that allows you to move.

When your hips lack mobility (the ability to actively control and access your full range of motion within the joint), you have tight hip flexors and lower back stiffness. can deal with And those symptoms can increase the risk of pain and injury, as Shukla previously noted. "If the hips are good, usually the rest of the body's joints can move effectively," adds Monal. "But once the hips are compromised, other things start to malfunction or try to compensate, and so you're going to have different injuries." Thankfully, performing the butterfly stretch can help loosen up the hips so you can unlock the range of motion you need to live an injury-free life, she adds.

Stretches the lower back.

If you're standing at a desk for more than 40 hours a week, there's a good chance you're experiencing lower back pain, says Monal. "Because people sit for so much time, their spine is repeatedly compressing, as if each disc is crashing on top of the other," she explains. She explains that compression, combined with poor posture and lack of core strength, and preoccupation with sitting upright, can cause strain on your back. However, during the butterfly stretch, you'll sit tall and bend your torso forward, which relieves your lower back of a lot of stress.

Calms the nervous system.

Watching butterflies in the park can feel relaxing, says Monal, but practicing the butterfly stretch can be just as calming for the nervous system. "Different poses have different energetic properties to them, and forward folds are more relaxing and more down-regulating for the nervous system," she explains. "Especially after a workout, [the butterfly stretch] is good for helping your body calm down and slow down and get into recovery mode." Since feelings of anxiety are often in the hips and cause tightness, poses that focus on the joint — including the butterfly stretch — can help move this "stuck energy," says Monal.

Butterfly stretch muscles worked.

While the hips and lower back are the main targets, the butterfly stretch can also loosen up your hamstrings and IT band. Plus, the pose stretches the inner thighs, says Sabrina Washington, a Core Power yoga instructor in Sacramento. “It's a part of the body that doesn't get stretched very often… as a result, it gets a little weak or stiff,” she notes. "[Continuity] helps keep your pelvis, hips, and groin area healthy."

Monal says the emphasis of the butterfly stretch can also change depending on where your feet are positioned. "You'll move the soles closer to the feet toward your pelvis, the same pull on the inner thighs and lower back," she explains. "As you start to move your feet further away from you, the stretch starts moving to the outside of the leg."

Butterfly stretch variations

No matter how experienced you are with stretching, you can practice the butterfly stretch thanks to variations that lower and level the posture. Try these modification and development ideas the next time you're in the mood to practice.

Modification: Butterfly stretch with hips elevated

If you don't regularly sit on the floor without supporting your trunk, you can unintentionally round your spine as you try to lower your knees toward the floor, Monal says. . The solution: Sit on a blanket, pillow, or block to elevate your hips, which tilts your pelvis slightly forward and helps you sit taller when you drop your knees, she suggests.

To reduce strain on your hips and inner thighs, you can also do a half-butterfly exercise, in which you keep one leg fully extended and the sole of your bent leg against the opposite inner thigh. Keep it up, Washington added. Monal adds that people with hip or knee problems can place a rolled blanket or bolster under their knees for extra support.

Progression: Butterfly stretch with block

As you build flexibility and begin to lower your torso closer to the ground, try to lower your elbows to the floor while lengthening your back to deepen the stretch. Then, place a yoga block or other support under your forehead, says Monal. She says this simple development will enhance the comfort properties of the butterfly stretch. "There's a pressure point at the third eye point, between the eyebrows, and it regulates down to the nervous system," she explains. "This will really help your body settle into the posture."

Common Butterfly Drawing Mistakes

While the goal should be to keep your knees as close to the ground as possible during the butterfly stretch, you shouldn't force it, Monal says. Beginners often lack mobility and flexibility, and as a result, their knees may hang high in the air. "But it's not like if your knees are in the air, you're not doing the stretch correctly," she adds. "You can use your elbows to gently press into the sides of your knees to help open them up a little more, but you never want to force them to the point where it hurts."

It's also important to avoid hunching your shoulders and letting your chest drop, which can happen when you're trying to bring your head closer to your feet, Monal says. "If you can keep your back flat and only bend forward, that would be the ideal situation," she adds. "Then finally, just for a calming effect, you can allow the head and neck to round."

And remember, "no pain, no gain" is not true at all. "One of the main mistakes people can make with stretches is going too deep, too fast," says Washington. "[People] have been conditioned to think, 'If I don't feel it, I must not be doing it right or with enough intensity.'" Instead, ease yourself into the stretch, and where Push yourself until you are comfortable.

How to Incorporate the Butterfly Stretch into Your Routine

Although the butterfly stretch is generally safe, people with a history of or currently dealing with serious hip or knee injuries should check with their healthcare provider before trying the pose, Monal says. Must check. Regardless of your health, remember to listen to your body. "If it's something you can do comfortably, without feeling like you're in pain or starting to cry, it's probably okay," she says. "But if it's something that's really causing you pain or is too painful to even sit on the floor yourself, you're probably not ready to do it."

If you feel all clear and relaxed, try adding it to your morning routine to wake up your body. "When you sleep, you don't move so much that the connective tissue gets really tense and tight," says Monal. "So it's really great to get moving in the morning." Or, practice the butterfly stretch before you lie in bed to relieve the day's stress. To make this move more comfortable, lie on your back with your feet in a butterfly position, Washington adds. "If you're lying down you can do this with a block under your feet, which can be really nice and take some of the pressure off your lower back," she adds.

You can also incorporate the butterfly stretch into your warm-up routine, especially if you're into an exercise that targets the hips, inner thighs, or hamstrings, says Monal. To make it more dynamic, gently move your knees up and down as if you're lightly flapping your butterfly wings, Washington adds.

Regardless of how and when you practice the posture, aim to hold the stretch for about five to 10 breaths, advises Monal. But as with any movement or exercise, the practice progresses, so modifying the stretch or shortening it to just a few breaths is important. Don't be shy to grab it.