 Hello, Earth citizens. In this video, we're going to do a 10 minute routine for Tai Chi for lower back pain. We've invited our friend Jonathan from Body and Brain, and he is the center manager at Westchester Center in New York. Are you ready? Hello, everyone. My name is Jonathan. Today, we're going to be doing a 10 minute Tai Chi routine for lower back pain. I've made other Tai Chi routine videos, which lead up to this one, which you can take a look at. We'll leave the links in the description below. Let's get started. We're going to start by warming up the lower back and warming up the region of the lower back, hip joints, and your glutes. So the first exercise we're going to be doing is a waist rotation. Place your hands on your sides and rotate your body. If you have a lot of tension in your lower back and even this feels uncomfortable, then you can do smaller circles. But if you feel okay, you can grow your circles a little bit more, take a deep breath in to your body, and exhale up. You can typically do this about 10, 20, 30 times. The more that you do it, obviously the better. Let's go in the opposite direction. Inhale deeply and exhale. And you may feel that between the left and the right side, there is a slight difference. It can be less smooth on the right side or the left side. You may hear some sounds on one side versus the other. So be mindful of those sides. You may consider some of the posture habits that you have throughout the day. And you may want to adjust some of those to accommodate releasing tension from your lower back. Switch sides again. Take a deep breath in. As you start to loosen up, you can make bigger circles which will open up your lower back. It'll open up your glutes. Don't open up your hamstrings. And last time, opposite direction. Breathe very deep. If you feel any kind of pinching sensations as you go back, do not lean back. Tuck your tailbone in and that'll help you to protect your lower back. And then side to side. Gently push against your hips. Inhale, exhale comfortably. One more time. And gently forward and back. Now this one, when you move your body forward, you want to tuck your tailbone and gently squeeze your glutes. This will release the pressure from your lower back directly and bring them in towards your thigh. If you want to feel the difference, don't tuck your tailbone and push forward. You're going to feel some pressure right above your sacrum and the lumbar spine. So make sure to protect your lower back by tucking in your tailbone and activating your lower abdomen and your thighs. Inhale, exhale and return to the center. Now the last warm-up we're going to do is a gentle hip rotation. So open out from the left and then the right side. We'll do this just 10 times together. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 inside. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, one more time. Inhale, very good. So why don't we get into the actual form now? Make your feet shoulders width apart or a bit wider, depending on your structural positioning, depending on your body type, you may feel more comfortable bringing your feet closer or wider. I recommend a neutral position, which is at least shoulders width apart. If you want to challenge yourself, you can obviously go a little bit wider and sit into your thighs a bit more. So I'm going to choose shoulders width apart to keep it very general for everyone here. You're going to make your arms into a circle. You can imagine the earth. So this is also can be considered as an earth form. Make a circle with your arms and this is basically where we're going to be moving side to side. I'm going to show it to you once and then I'm going to explain a little bit as we go. Shift your weight to your left side, your arms come up, still you're maintaining the circle. The right hand stops moving at some point and then the left hand just hangs over here. You're going to rotate your palm up like this and your right hand is going to turn in, palm facing your body. You're going to rotate your entire body over to the right side as you gently shift your weight into your right leg. Now you want to be mindful not to move your knees while you're doing this. Your left elbow is going to draw in towards your right hand. Sink down. Both knees are going to sink towards your big toe. Your hands will open. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Let me show you without any explanation. Pretty simple, right? We're going to do it on the opposite side now. So make your circle. Shift your body weight, a very basic principle in your Tai Chi and Shigong practices is the shifting of weight. So this is something that you may want to practice by yourself or by itself. Shift to the right side and then you're going to gently rotate the body. This is how we target the tension of the lower back, but we don't want to rotate the knees. So be mindful to maintain structural integrity. Don't take your joints out of position. You're just rotating the upper back so that way you can feel your lower back. All right? From the beginning, shift your weight. Bring both of your arms up as you inhale. Turn your palm up on the right hand side. Shift your whole body to the left side. Rotate. And once you meet the point where you can't rotate your body anymore, draw your elbow in and down. Sink your weight in your legs. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Left side, exhale. Right side, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Let's do it again. In, rotate. So feel your abdomen. Feel your lower back. Relax and sink. Inhale, exhale. Exhale. Opposite side, in. And once you get the hang of it, it moves pretty smoothly. So here's a more natural pace. In, in. One very important thing when you're relaxing and sinking your body, you don't want to, for example, from here, I don't want to bend my body at any point. You can see this curve in my lower back. I keep a neutral spine the whole time with my tailbone retained. And I just sink as if I'm sitting in a chair. In and out. Okay? So be mindful not to bend your body too much. Let's try. In and out. Feet together. Breathe in. Place your hands on your abdomen for three deep breaths. You can rest your eyes. Take a deep breath in and try to feel the space around your lower back. Release any tension. One more time. Inhale. Very good. Humbs up. Breathe in. Palms together. Everyone, you did a great job. Please practice this at least five or 10 minutes a day. If you do have lower back pain, please be mindful of your rotations. Mostly concentrate on your breathing and various subtle movements. Okay? If you want to experience a full one-hour brain education-based class, please check out a local Biden brain yoga studio near you.