 Hi, you guys. Lindsay here. Welcome back to my channel, Inside the Hymn. Today you might see a guest with me. This is Kate Counts. She is a local yoga instructor here in Charleston. She's also a maker and a creator herself. She has been a psoist at one point in her life. She also makes these really beautiful molla necklaces and has Etsy shops. So I'll leave a link in the description box below where you can find her stuff. But she's going to talk us talk to us today about some easy beginner yoga moves that we can all do that would help us as psoists. Because I think we all, as we're behind our machine, we're hushed over or at our cutting table and we're bent over our cutting table and we all start to feel those aches and pains in and around our body. So she's going to bring us some quick and easy yoga moves that we can do anywhere, anywhere, anytime once we're starting to feel the aches and pains and the tightness. Are we good? Okay, all right. So what's the first? So what I'm going to do first is since you, when you are sewing a lot of times you're hunched over maybe you're looking, you're getting into your neck a bit and your spine is used to being in one position, which is hunched over a bit. So a really good go-to is five spinal movements for the spine to get the spine moving in all different directions. And this is something that you can, you know, stop whatever project you're working on when you start to feel it in your spine, your lower back, your neck, you know, you don't even need a yoga mat. You can just do this on the floor. And so I'll walk you through those first and then also I'm going to give you some stretches that you can do at your actual station where, you know, your sewing table. So if you are like, oh, going in, you're like, oh, I need to move a little bit, you don't have to get up and you can just do some moves and then go back into the project chair that you are working on. Perfect. So coming into a tabletop position, do you want me to do this one? Hold on, you get on the green one and I'll go on the green one. Okay, we're about to be. I used to butt there. So first things first, when you come into a nice tabletop position and I want you to find a place of stability here. So bringing your wrists approximately underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips, reach the crown of the head towards the front of the room, the pelvis to the back. Now pull your lower belly up for me. I don't want you to feel this in your lower back and then inhale real big and then exhale, roll your spine up towards the sky. So this is cat tilt and this is a really great pose to get out of the neck, the cervical spine and just pull up through the lower belly. You can even higher up and feel the spaces in between your vertebrae and then on the next thing, you're going to drop your belly down. You're coming into cow tail. You're going to bring the shoulder blades down in the back and this is a really great stretch for your throat and to get the shoulder blades down in the back. And now I just want you to inhale and exhale, just moving up and down half cow. So this is your spinal movement number one. Just moving the spine up and down. And you all, you can change your breath parameter. If it feels better to inhale the spine up and exhale the belly down, you can do that as well. This feels so good. So just get into a few rounds of this and you might find that there's a tilt that you're like, oh, I need to stop here. Please stop and just enjoy it. But just keep breathing. How long should you do like maybe six to eight rounds? Uh-huh. And then bring yourself back to that tabletop position. Okay, so neck in line with the spine. We're going to come into spinal movement number two, which is side bending. So I want you to begin to bend the right elbow towards the right knee and look towards your right foot. Now, pull your lower belly up. Yeah, there you go, Lindsay. And get a deep stretch on the left side of your body. Yeah. Can you breathe into your left lung? Kind of feels cool, huh? Yeah. And then bring yourself back through the stomach. You might feel a little bit of a rebound where your spine is like boom, up in. And then take your left elbow towards your left knee. Take your gaze towards your left foot. Pull the lower belly up and get stretched on the right side. Take a moment, breathe into the right lung. Good. And then bring yourself back to the center. Now I want you to start to move side to side. So you're going to bend the elbows a little bit. You might walk the hands, but I want you to think of your spine like a window wiper and you're just moving it side to side. So from here, you've already moved your spine in two different directions, up, down, and side to side. So your spine's like, yes, thank you. Right? Yes. And now bring yourself back through the center. We'll come into spine movement number three, which is ferro rolls. So it's a combination of one and two. So begin to drop the belly down behind your counsel that you've already bent here before. Now begin to roll to either side. It doesn't matter. I'm going to go to the right side with Lindsay. So just roll the subbellum to the side and then roll the spine up, cap, tilt, let your head drop, and then roll to the opposite side, belly comes down. And just begin to make circles with the spine. But here's the deal. I want you to think about being in a really tight barrel and you can't really get much movement in your hips or your shoulders and you're just making it about the spine. So think you're like trying to trace the circumference of the barrel with the spine. Good. Now go both directions. You might find that the opposite direction is what you're creating. Notice. So just do a few rolls here. Let your head just kind of hang and just enjoy the ride. Good. Now bring yourself back to the center here, tabletop. Walk your hands one palm pretty forward. All right. So we're going to go a little bit loosey-goosey, get into the hips since we sit a lot, our hamstrings, our hips, your flexors get super tight. So I want you to just begin to spin your hips over your knees. Yeah. So the best way that I can describe this is like making cookies. So you make cookies, right? And you put them in the oven and you look at the bowl and you're like, oh yeah. And you take the spatula and you're in the wide post. You're ripping the bowl with your hips. Now go both directions. You're getting into the shoulder joint. You're getting into the knee joint and you're also getting into the hip joint. How do you protect your lower back on this one? Pulling the lower belly up. So see if you can get a little bit wider with your circles. Yeah. And pull that lower belly up as you're coming in with the side. Yeah. Now movement number five is a combination of all the movements into one. And so I want you, no don't be afraid. I want you to imagine that you're inside this beautiful crystal ball. I'm really into analogies. And your job is to grab every aspect of the ball. And sometimes I can close my eyes and just get over myself and just really listen to my body. And just take a few movements here. You might find a spot that's like, oh this feels good. And if it does, hang out there. Yeah. So are we just like going through any position we want? Yeah. So it's like you're inside the ball. What you're doing is you're taking those first four movements and combining them all into one. You're just moving around. Moving around. You're like getting it all moving. Which is great because when you're sewing, you're usually in one spot for a really long time. So what's happening is all the blood, the joints, the bones, the muscles are communicating though. They're like, oh yeah. We're alive. You're alive. Now just slowly bring yourself forward. This is a modified up dog. So those were the five spinal movements. Great. Now pull the shoulder blades down the back. Yeah. And lift your chest up and get a nice stretch from your down on a wall, your abs. You know, you might lift your chin up a little bit. Oh gosh, that feels good. Now pull the lower belly out and just slowly come back into China's pose. Which is big toes together means wide and narrow. And just take a moment and let that all settle in. That's great. That whole sequence. Yeah. Every time you're feeling stressed, it doesn't have to be snowing. Right. Or this is a really good movement if you've been traveling. Yes. Or if you're about to get on an airplane, do these five movements. Or after you get to your destination, you know, on a hotel floor, just doing these five, you know, because once you sit, it's just like anything. Yeah. And you sit on an airplane or so. Now your spine's like, oh, you almost can feel it flush. Yes. So those are the first five movements for the spine. If you want to take it to a whole other sequence, we can take a stretch with the hamstrings. So what happens when we're sitting a lot, y'all, is our hamstrings get really tight. And what happens when the hamstrings get tight is they pull on the lower back. So a lot of the reasons why we have all these lower back issues, especially in the United States when sitting, it's not really the spine. Right. It's these muscles being so tight and just pulling and without affecting the hip too. The hip flexor stretches. Yeah, get so tight as well. So hips tight, hamstrings tight, and then eventually your spine is going to be there. It doesn't feel really supported. Cool. So I'm going to give you a hip flexor stretch and a hamstring stretch that you can do pretty much anywhere on the floor next to your, where you're sitting. Okay. Go for it. So here we go. We're going to take that right foot forward, and I just want you to shift forward into the right leg and frame that right foot. Now this is going to get into the hips a little bit. Take that left foot, kind of bring it back of it. Yeah, bring it back. Yeah, just kind of move it back a bit. There you go. Oh, yes. Yes. Now bring, my head might get cut off a little bit here. Bring both hands to the knee and just shift forward. So this is hip flexor. They're getting much more. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Now from here, can you bring both hands onto the inside of your right foot and just tilt all that right foot towards the edge a little bit, and I want you to just kind of sink into the hips. That right knee might fall out a little bit. This is hip flexor, guys, so you're getting in there. And all I can say is when you come in versus you might feel really uncomfortable, I don't want you to feel pain. Okay. But uncomfortableness is productive. Fine line. Yeah. So if you want to take it farther, you can go ahead and just bring your elbows down to the floor or you might use something to prop your elbows up on. If you want to take it a little bit deeper. Like something at home, like a pillow or something like that. I usually use like a flock. If you use books, books would work. Just bring it down. Good. Now begin to walk it up. And here I would take like eight to 10 breaths, y'all. Right. Right. Pull in here. And then bringing it up, you're going to feel a little achy, but that's okay. Heel to that foot in a little bit and we're going to get into the hamstrings. So shift your hips back, but that right, you'll find the mat toes up. Inhale real big, exhale, fold over. Now you shouldn't feel this so much in the hips. It should be more the hamstring and back muscle of the upper leg. All through, like almost starting to my glute and pulling all the way down to my knee. Yeah. And it's pretty intense. Yes. And so I like to say if it's intense, that's your body talking to me. And it's like, please stretch. I needed this. Good. That's what it's like. And I would, you know, go take eight to 10 breaths here. And then begin to shift your weight back into that foot. And I just want you to bring both hands onto the inside. Just swing that leg back. I'm going to bring your hips back again. Child's pose. And we'll go ahead and do the other side. Awesome. Yeah, so good. So just bringing yourself up. Let that left foot come out. And you're going to frame that left foot and just shift forward. And you might find that one hip is tighter than the other. Happens sometimes. Now bring both hands to the left knee. Reach forward. Yeah, this one isn't as bad. I wonder if because like when I'm sitting, not at my side of the table, but like on the sofa, I'll usually sit with my legs to one side. Good. And then go ahead and frame that foot. And then bring both hands onto the inside. He'll throw that left foot towards the edge. Begin to sink a little bit deeper into those hips. Now that left knee might fall out a little bit, but that's okay. You're just making space for the hip. Send them 8 to 10 breaths here. You can do that at home. And then we'll bring that up and begin to heal. Throw that foot in and just begin to shift your hips back to manipulate that left heel on the mat. Close up and just take your time here. And inhale real big. Reach the crown of the head. And then exhale the chair. How are you guys doing at home? Yeah. Is this feeling good? Here's the deal. I say usually feel the sensation. And in my classes, I try to encourage my students to not let the whispers of the body turn into screams. Okay. Because when they start to turn into screams, that's when we run into issues. Yeah. You know. And just know that stretching this muscle is giving back to your spine. But I feel like that saying, oh, but also go outside of the yoga room. Like when you're sitting at your sewing table, don't let the whispers of the pains while you're sewing turn into screams later. So you're feeling a little achy. Stop for a moment, stretch and then go back. Yeah. Would you say like every hour would be? Yes. Every hour for sure. You know. Even if it's just good vibes, find the movements and then go back in. We have some, some sessions where we will just power through a project. And just push back child's pose. How many marathon sewing sessions? Oh man. That's a lot for the time I'm sitting. I mean, you're like getting up and down, but still it's the majority of the time. And then just bring yourself forward. We'll just have those legs swing out in front of you. Yeah. And here's a tip, y'all. For when you are sitting, just regular, notice if, if when you're with your pelvis on your seat, if you're holding your weight in one butt cheek more than the other. So when you're even when you're sewing, you're like, huh, am I shifting to one side more than the other? And just be mindful about where your pelvis is. Might help with the spine and also like maybe what if flexor feels a little bit tighter than the other because you're shifting. Totally. We do it. We don't even know. So inhale those, go ahead and point your toes up towards the sky. Inhale the arms up towards the sky and actually fold forward. This is also getting deep into the back of the legs. And it does not matter if you touch your toes or not. You can bring your hands to your sides. You can bring your hands to your shins, your ankles, your toes. Inhale real big. Exhale, just fold a little bit more forward. It kind of feels good across the upper back. Upper back too. This is great. Open up the upper back too. Good. And then inhale the hands up towards the sky. Put the hands down to your side. If they don't do a little bit of a twist because our thoracic spine, the middle part of the spine takes a lot of the brunt when we are sewing. So go ahead and walk that right foot in towards your boot. I want you to flex your left foot and then I want you to bring your left hand to your right knee and then take this right arm and bring it behind you like a kickstand. You know when you like stake a plant because it you know maybe it's kind of droopy? I want you to think about your arm, your right arm staking your spine. Now inhale really lengthen through the crown of the head and then exhale feel the twist through the torso. Keep flexing that left foot. I do not plant. I do not have a green thumb. I never heard of staking a plant before. But I get what you're saying. You're sputting. Go ahead and bring it back through the center and then switch sides. So go ahead and walk that left heel and right foot points towards the sky. Bring that right hand to the left knee. We'll swing that other arm which is kind of nice for the shoulder girdle and then just go ahead and press that left foot left hand into the mouth. Nice twist. Now inhale lengthen your stomach and exhale twist through and then bring yourself all the way back through the stomach. Oh so good. So those are all the stretches that you can do on the floor and then I'm going to give you some tips for what you can do to say you are in the middle of a project and you don't have time to roll out your yoga mat or you don't have space to do the stretching that can get you in. Like I said the first tip is notice where your pelvis is on your seat. If you're shifting into one buttock more than the other kind of get you know, balance that out. So first thing I want you to just reach the arms up towards the sky. You're at your desk. You just take the right arm over and just reach the left arm to the side and you can like hold on to whatever seat you know. If you're sitting on a chair just hold out to the edge and just push over and then inhale both hands up. Exhale opposite side. Reach over good and then bring yourself back through the center. Bring your arms down. So what happens when you're sewing is you kind of cave in a little bit so your pectoral muscles these muscles need a good stretch to open up the chest. I just think of all others thought it would be like it's back and spine but you're right all of these little ones too. So inhale the arms up and then once you just pull your elbows wide like go post arms and just reach your chest forward and just take a few breaths here. This is just kind of an introductory stretch that we'll do before we'll get into it a little bit deeper and you'll be hands up and now swing your arms behind you. So you can be here I call this superhero okay or you can take it to another level interlace your fingers and open up your chest. So this is the complete opposite way you are when you're sewing. Yeah I feel like my collarbones are like speaking to me. And so this is a great it just take a moment this could be a minute and just be like okay I'm gonna do these stretches to kind of get everything flowing good now release inhale the arms up exhale just drop them back down roll the shoulders a little bit and then I'm gonna get a good stretch for your back. Okay. All right so a great stretch to get into the back of the body is it's actually called eagle arms you might hear that in a class but inhaling the arms up go ahead and take that right arm and wrap around your left the right arm around left of the elbows me bringing the palms together. Now if this is not comfortable you can go ahead and grab each shoulder blade that is the option okay but we'll start here and I want us to begin to pull your elbows up and pull your shoulder blades down the back and just take a few breaths into the back of the body. This is getting into your tracks like my all my shoulder my entire shoulder is loving this. Reach the arms up go ahead and take that left arm around to the opposite side the palms meet and one thing I'm curiously see happen is people kind of fold forward like this remember we're you're doing that a lot when you're sewing so I want you to really lift those elbows up pull the shoulder blades down the back pull your lower belly up for me and just breathe into the back of the body and I would you know do this like four to six breaths good and then unwrap inhale the arms up exhale the hands down to your sides we'll get into the shoulders taking the right arm all the way over so we got into our pectoral muscles we got into the back so now just really getting into the shoulder girdle so drop that right shoulder away from your ears and you might even stretch your hand a little bit our hands get cramped a bit when we sew so you might you know spread your fingers get stretching to your palm good and then bring it back over to the opposite side same thing go ahead and drop the left shoulder away from the ear stretch the hand a bit your fingers good and then bring yourself back through the center roll the shoulders away from the ears just a few shoulder rolls and then roll forward and then we'll last but not least get into the neck so go on and just find neutral spine and go ahead and bounce out the way between both but cheeks just taking the right the head down chin towards your chest feeling a stretch into the back of the neck and then slowly roll to the right get a deep stretch on the left side and then roll back a little bit put your chin up towards the sky and roll to the opposite side nice stretch on the right so pull the shoulder away from the ear and then bring it back through the center find neutral spine yes so good so all of these things are really great to do what we in the beginning I showed you some stretches that you can do away from your desk and these ones are the ones that you can do at your sewing station I suggest if you are in like a marathon sewing session that you stop every hour so maybe the first hour since you're just getting started to stop you to those exercises where we get into the packs they get into the back we get into the shoulder and then the next hour you actually get off the chair push in and go ahead and do the stretches in your hamstrings your hip flexors and the five spinal movements and always have water at all times because like I said it you might not think it's an olympic sport but sewing is so hydrating your muscles as you do that will also help to reduce stiffness and tension yeah 100 percent well I hope you guys enjoyed this video I hope you will take to the yoga mat take to your chairs and take a minute for yourselves as your for your bodies as you are sewing thank you so much you're welcome thanks for having me Lindsay um it's the beginning of the year and health and wellness is top of mind for everyone so hopefully now you will be just as healthy as you are creative creative your sewing machine exactly thank you I'll see you guys in my next video bye