In this exercise, I’ll show you how we’re going to provide support and stability in the lower part of the body, the pelvis and the leg, and balance out the musculature and neuro-muscular patterning, the signals from your brain to the different muscles, telling which one to contract, how much, and which one to loosen from the center up. We’re going balance this whole down below, and then we’re going to open up the area above. This is great exercise for those of you who are suffering from lower back pain because this exercise provides stability and balance below the pain area, so that pain area doesn’t have to work so hard, and then the area above that area, which, generally is tied down, it doesn’t move enough, causing the lower area to move too much, and increase the pain or injury or whatever. So what you’re doing is removing strain from the area of injury by building foundation and flexibility. In other words you’re trying to integrate build integrity into your system, your trunk, the core musculature of the trunk, by providing stability and support and strengthening through the top of the body.

So, what you will need for this exercise is a yoga brick, or some hard box. I prefer the yoga brick, though the brick that I’m using here is a foam brick. Generally, I use only wooden bricks, but this is what I happen to have around, and it’s slightly thicker than normal; it has a random thickness. If you’re going to buy a yoga brick, I suggest you buy a wooden brick. If you travel a lot, a hard foam brick would be more suitable or a cork brick. There are also wooden travel bricks that are also hollow that are available. I myself sell basic wooden bricks and basic foam bricks on my website. Again, if I have to choose what I would use at home, I’ll use the wooden brick, if I’m away, I might use the foam brick. I also have here a sticky mat. Get a sticky mat that’s sticky, not one that’s slippery. They don’t have to be fancy or expensive; there are sticky mats under twenty-five dollars. Get a good sticky mat that will last you for years. Make sure that whichever you buy, whether it’s the affordable or the more expensive ones, it’s not a slippery mat, which can make slip and slide from some perspiration on your hands and feet. The mat should have traction. There’s really no other purpose for this mat, other than to provide a tiny bit of padding, with traction, especially in yoga. Ok, so, here we go. I’m going to show you the side view of this, in another version I may show you the front view. So first off, take the brick to your side. Then I fold the sticky mat in a half, lengthwise. Then I’m going to start on all fours. My hands are on the floor, and my lower body is somewhat kneeling; my knees and lower legs are on the mat. My knees are together and my feet are slightly more than hip width distance apart. The point here is that I want my buttocks to fit between my feet later on. Now, I’m going to place this brick in between my ankles. Then I place the top of my head unto the floor, I’m now in a prostrate position, and then I’m going to drop my buttocks unto the brick. I’m now sitting on the brick, with my lower leg underneath my thighs, on the mat, my back straight, my lower leg, and my feet and toes straight. Now, if I feel like my buttocks are getting crowded on the brick I’m going to spread my buttocks a little bit, so that my tail bone sits on the brick. Remember, we’re trying to balance the foundation of the body, so if I’m balancing it in an awkward position, with my toes, feet, and back not straight, it won’t help. All these muscles here feed up into the legs and help provide support for my pelvis and my lower back. So here I have it. Now I’m simply going to bring the palm of my hands together, at an arm’s length in front of me, then interlock my fingers, and then twist them outward so that the underside of the palm are facing outward. And then I bring them up over my head. Now, I’m going to look up, and I’m going to spread my palms as much as I can, the fingers still interlocked, towards the ceiling. And if you can notice, my hands and my arms are quite vertical. So I’m going to stretch them out, my arms straight. Now my lower back starts to work out a little bit; this may cause me a little bit of discomfort. The last thing you want to have when you have an injury in you lower back is a spasm. So I’m going to drop my buttocks a little bit. If I will exaggerate this, my top pelvis will start to tip forward and my lumbar curves will be too exaggerated. I drop my buttocks, and I notice that I got more stretch in my arms as I drop those buttocks because I can also push up. Now, through the body, from the buttock all the way to the head, as if I were holding a tray of drinks or something heavy, a medicine bottle perhaps; I want to have that support, that integrity through my core, through the trunk of my body down to the brick through my buttocks, so, now I bring my arms down, I interchange the interlock of my fingers, that is my right palm overlaps my left palm, now it would be vice-versa, and then I do the same exercise again. I look up, I make sure my arms are vertical and then I drop my buttocks if my low back is weighting forward. And I just go through that a few more times.

This exercise is fabulous. It opens up the upper back and the chest, and provides support for this trunk area, widens out the sacroiliac joint, and balances out the leg musculature and neuro-musculature. Now to go back into the neutral position, I place my hands on the floor on my sides, lateral to my shoulders, place my head on the floor, take the brick out from between my feet, cross my legs, move my buttocks behind my legs, straighten my legs out, engage/contract my quads in about a hundred and twenty percent for about twenty seconds, feet straight facing upward, knees straight up facing upward. Then my lower legs press into the heels, I place my hands on the side, and heave my chest up. Pressing into the heels provides support, leverage from the legs to give me support through the torso.