Five Minute Yoga: Open the hips, relax your low back

So, it’s afternoon. You’ve been driving, sitting in the car, sitting at the desk, sitting at the table. You get straight up, you sit straight down. Your sits bones haven’t touched the floor all week. You feel stiff in the hips and propped up. You have five minutes. This is for you.
Try: Baddha Konasana or Cobbler’s pose. Sit either on the floor or if you feel super stiff try sliding a blanket right underneath the sits bones to lift you. Bring the bottom’s of the feet together. Sit up tall and breath into the inner thighs, giving them permission to release. Sit for one minute. With each inhalation, imagine the spine growing tall expanding toward the ceiling, creating space between each vertebrae as you exhale imagine giving permission to the inner thighs to release. Be very gentle, if you feel pain in the low back, try this pose with a support both under the hips and under the knees to prevent them from pulling too firmly.

After one minute, take a nice long inhalation and as you exhale, lean forward. For you, this may mean a slight, perhaps visually imperceptible lean relaxing the head down, or if you are still able to breath and you feel more open you may be able to walk the forearms down and relax even supporting the head by stacking the forearms. Take several breaths here, making sure the breath is relaxed and open without tension.

In addition to feeling so wonderful after our up down chair soldier routine, this pose also encourages fresh circulation in the urinary tract system, the abdomen and can be used to relieve sciatica. If you still feel a bit tight after the opening, try following this up with a round of cat cow or cakravakasana, which will neutralize the spine. Simply start in all fours, with wrists stacked under shoulders, knees under hips. As you inhale extend the spine, lifting the chest as you exhale curl back flexing the spine.