Lower Back Therapy

In this episode we explore the range of movement available in our spine as we discover ways to decompress our intervertebral discs, hydrate and balance the deep fascia that controls spinal movement, and stretch and rejuvenate the many tissues that our spine relies on for support and nourishment. There is an old saying that I agree strongly with: "You're only as young as your spine." In this class we seek to repair our spine and effectively 'de-age' our bodies!

Ready to roll away the tension? In this targeted fascial release class, we’re diving deep into the 'key culprits' of lower body pain. Using therapy balls and restorative stretches, we’ll unlock tightness in the lower back, outer hips, and IT bands that might be affecting your knees. Expect a deep release that boosts mobility and helps you get back to feeling—and moving—your best!

Any therapist will agree that the most common injury we see with clients arriving for treatment in acute pain is usually described by the term 'I Put My Back Out,' and is usually caused by a movement involving forward flexion with a slight rotation such as picking up an item off the floor or tying one's shoes. The pain is usually experienced immediately during the movement, and often manifests as a sharp, shooting, or locking type pain in the lower back, and is usually predominant on one side of the spine. The pain persists for days on end, we may end up bed ridden or have a hard time standing up straight, and often we can retrigger the pain any time we begin to bend forward in space. Does this sound like something you have experienced in the past or are currently working through? If so, than you are not alone! Our human biomechanics make it incredibly easy to experience this kind of pain at some point in life. Don't worry, there are many things you can do to not only help get rid of the pain and inflammation, but also to improve and repair your mobility in such a way to make sure that the issue doesn't reappear again in the future! This class is dedicated to all of us who have 'put our backs out' and will empower you to take control of your healing and get things back on track from the comfort of home!

Join me for a journey into the gentle, restorative power of spinal recovery. Because we only get one spine, learning to care for it is one of the most vital investments you can make for your longevity. Whether you are navigating past injuries or recent changes, it is never too late to improve your spinal health. In this class, we’ll work to release deep-seated tension and restore the natural range of motion essential for a vibrant, pain-free life. Our approach is uniquely gentle yet profoundly effective. If you are living with a sensitive lower back injury, osteoporosis, or any lower thoracic or lumbar spine compression fractures, this class is designed specifically to be safe for you. These techniques are not just safe—they are a productive path toward reclaiming strength and comfort, and maintaining health for anyone who has a spine!

SI Joints and Hips are the most popular of all Therapeutic Yoga classes, not only because many of us struggle with pain in these areas, but also because they feel so great! This class is the ultimate recipe for back pain, hip pain, or anyone who has to spend more than 4 hours a day in a chair! Have questions? Visit our Discover & Learn forum to post questions about any pain or discomfort you may be feeling in any of the poses, anatomy or physiology questions, and more! I'll be happy to answer your questions in the forum, and even to make a short video to show you how to adjust or align your asana to make them work for your unique body!

In this class we will take a deep exploration beginning in the IT Bands travelling up our outer thighs and into our hips, and then we will follow this fascial line up through the stabilizing tissues of our hips and into our lower back. When tight or out of balance, pressure or adhesion in these lines can often be a hidden trigger for deep hip pain, knee degeneration, and chronic lower back pain. By learning to balance the tension in these fascial structures, we will learn to balance our own center of gravity, realign our hips and knees, and liberate our lower back so it can start enjoying the stability and mobility with which it is designed to function. This class will help you learn to not only recognize where you are out of balance, but will also empower you to know what to do about it!

Join me for a class celebrating the human spine through a therapeutic journey dedicated to decompression, balance, and liberation of our body's most important movement structure! Designed with an intricate balance between tension and compression structures, your spine has over 120 different muscles, around 220 ligaments, 100 joints, 26 bones, and 23 discs. When functioning well, these parts come together to enable an almost limitless potential for movement from a place of comfort and ease. However, when certain areas get tight, over compressed, our out of sync with the rest of the system, pain, degeneration, and injury often occur. In this class we will learn to use therapy balls and long-hold stretches to decompress our spine from the bottom all the way up to the top. We will seek to understand where the tensional tissues of the spine are out of balance and how this incorrect tension can lead to compression and damage. Most importantly, we will uncover what it is that you need to do to rebalance, decompress, and bring your spine to a place of freedom!

This class focuses on balancing stability and release with a goal to address lower back discomfort through an integrative approach that prioritizes structural support. Explore fascial release techniques to hydrate the connective tissue of the glutes and hips, aiming to break the cycle of muscular guarding that can irritate your SI joints and cause pain in your back. Experience gentle mobility exercises that emphasize symmetrical pelvic movements to help restore natural alignment without overstretching vulnerable ligaments. Create relief through spinal decompression to alleviate pressure on your lumbar discs and sacrum. Finally, we'll finish it off with some gentle stretching to promote release and create the space needed to supporting long-term lower back health.

Join me for this 3-part mini series exploring a fascial line in your back which is often the hidden culprit for many kinds of back pain. In this class, we start with the thoracolumbar fascia (TLF) - your body's central hub for force and feeling. It’s a multi-layered diamond of silvery connective tissue that bridges your core, back, and hips, acting as both a protective stabilizer for your spine and a dynamic spring that powers every twist and step you take. Your TLF essentially works as your body’s natural weight belt. It uses elastic energy rather than muscular energy, allowing it work like a high-tension spring. When you bend forward in a yoga pose, it stretches and stores "strain energy," which then helps snap you back up with less effort. It also functions as the ‘sensory organ’ of your back. Neurologically, it’s six times more sensitive than muscle tissue, and is packed with nerve endings that tell your brain exactly where your spine is in space. This makes it both a critical tool for proprioception (body awareness), as well as a major source of back pain if it becomes adhered, shortened, or dehydrated. When the TLF becomes dry or "glued" down from inactivity, injury, or compensation, it can feel like stiff, tight armor that locks your back up and makes it feel achy, painful, and weak. In yoga, we move to hydrate this tissue through a combination of myofascial rolling, long hold stretches, stabilizing exercises, and rotational load training. With a balanced approach, improving your thoracolumbar fascia will lower your pain, improve your mobility, and allow you to enjoy the natural strength your body is intended to have! Join me for this fascial exploration of understanding and empowered movement potential!

Do you get pain in your lower back or hips? Pain after a long walk or first thing in the morning when you get out of bed? Do you struggle with pelvic alignment or mobility? Are you looking to improve and protect your posture as you age? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this class is for you! If you get pain anywhere in your lower back, pelvic, or hip regions, this class will show you tested and effective ways to improve the situation and with it, your health! Learn to balance and mobilize your joints in a way that will improve your alignment and posture, and create the environment for healing and productive progress in some of the body's most crucial joints. When the pelvis is balanced and aligned, the rest of the body has an easy time following suit. When the pelvis is out of balance, not only do we experience pain, but also enhanced wear and tear that increases the aging process in the joints we use to keep us mobile and out enjoying life! Join me in this class as we take both a restorative and preventative approach to caring for our SI Joints, Hips, and Health!

‘SI Joints & Hips’ is our most popular and often requested class topic. Since so many of us or working on this area as a top priority in our wellness routines, I like to dedicate numerous videos to the topic so we can keep learning new perspectives, insights, and inspirations as we continue to give our SI Joints and Hips the care they need and deserve! This class will teach you to understand where your SI Joints are and how they function, and will allow you to explore and consider an important question: Can your SI Joints move through their full range of motion? We will explore techniques to stabilize, decompress, mobilize, and repair the key areas that affect SI Joint and hip function in a routine that can be repeated regularly for maximum benefit!

This class will be dedicated to an exploration of the relationships which exist between our hips and lower back, learning to understand how certain fascial continuities travel from the base of our ribcage, down our lumbar spine, across our pelvis, and end up encompassing all sides of our hips. When we think about healing our hips and lower back, this class will show you why you can't really heal one without considering both! This class is sure to leave you feeling spacious, mobile, and ready to enjoy the holiday season!

Last week we began an exploration of Yoga for Back Pain by taking a look directly at our spine and addressing it's needs for hydration and movement, decompression, as well as stretching fascial care to help balance it's tension on all sides. However, back pain is a complex topic, and as we discussed last week, involves complex communication between the tension levels and movement of the upper and lower back in relation to each other, as well as with your core and hips. In this week's class we will be taking a deep dive into the lower back / hip connection as we continue our exploration for the causes of back pain. With many direct and indirect fascial connections travelling from our hips up into our lower back and core structures, imbalances below can often lead to pain above. Join me for class this week and take the next step towards healing your back pain!

A classic, but insanely popular class topic - our SI Joints & Hips just can't ever get enough love! Especially if they are hurting or experiencing suffering in any way! In this class we will work to decompress, mobilize, and balance our SI Joints, helping to restore their biomechanical function and efficiency. We will explore the relationship between the hip joint and SI Joints as we learn to release key musculatures and fascial connections that will allow more sustainable and long term relief from pain in these areas.

Back pain is the #1 complaint that brings people to seek out holistic wellness practices such as yoga, massage, chiropractic, and physio therapy care, and is something most adults have had personal experience with at some (or many) points of their life. However, the term 'back pain' is a broad term covering many different regions, functions, musculatures, nerve supplies, etc. There is a lot that can go wrong, and figuring out what has happened and what to do about it can be a very overwhelming experience. In this class we will seek to understand the nature of our back pain as we get curious about it's causes, it's relationships and effects on other areas of our back and body, and most importantly, what to do about it. Through an anatomical lens, we will learn to view our spine as a 'neutral' or 'balance-seeking' structure, and will use an exploration of decompression, movement, stretching, and fascial care techniques to help us understand the role our back plays in maintaining our balance, and what we need to do to improve those parameters and remove back pain from our lives!

You'll notice we have 2 different Spinal Therapeutic Videos. Each one invites you through a complete series of long-holds postures designed to improve the 6 fundamental movements of the spine, helping to rebalance and integrate the spine as a cohesive functioning system. Although similar, these routines utilize different stretches to create slightly different effects. We recommend alternating their use in your home spinal care routine for a more complex approach to your spinal health! Have questions? Visit our Discover & Learn forum to post questions about any pain or discomfort you may be feeling in any of the poses, anatomy or physiology questions, and more! I'll be happy to answer your questions in the forum, and even to make a short video to show you how to adjust or align your asana to make them work for your unique body!

In today’s modern world, we have become a chair-bound society. Between the morning commute, hours at a desk, and winding down on the couch, the average North American spends up to 13 hours a day seated—far more than our bodies were ever designed to endure. This prolonged sitting physically shortens the fascia, muscles, and ligaments along the front of the spine and hips. Over time, this "shortening" leads to lumbar disc compression, chronic hip tightness, locked SI joints, and that all-too-familiar ache in the neck and shoulders. Since we can't always change our schedules, we must change how we care for our bodies. The Un-Chair Class is specifically designed to offset the effects of a sedentary lifestyle. Through targeted stretching and fascial release, we will mobilize and rehydrate the tissues chronically affected by sitting. Join us to undo the workday and reclaim a healthy, balanced body.

There is no better way to enjoy the spring and summer than getting outside, connecting with mother earth, planting seeds and tending to their growth and development, and then enjoying the fruits of our labor from the incredible nutrition of non-commercialized veggies! However, gardening season always comes with it's associated aches and pains in both the upper and lower back, and these are the most common complaints I hear during this time of year! In this episode, we take a look at why back pain happens as a result of gardening, learn techniques that will help us with our alignment during our time in the garden, and very importantly, learn to give our upper and lower back the correct care to repair any strain or tension caused by this beloved past time. This class is highly suitable for anyone who is experiencing pain in their lower back or upper back as our flow will take us through a deep exploration of both!

Spice Level: 2 - Gentle Safe Movement Category - Therapeutic This 10-minute spinal flow is something we should do everyday! Everything the human spine can do is actually a combination of only 6 different movements. Learn how to use these basic movements to lubricate your spine, hydrate its fascia, and balance the tensional forces which protect, stabilize, and move your spine.

In this class, we return to the basics and do, in Erin's opinion, one of the most important routines needed in maintaining full body health - stretching the '6 directions of the spine.' Join us as we explore the natural functions and ranges of movement which indicate a healthy spine, learn to detect and understand where our spinal tension is out of balance, explore ways to rebalance and repair it's tissues, discs, and nerves, and find relief in the knowledge that even severe spinal damage can be improved or healed. Learn this simple and effective process of spinal restoration and help get your spine back on track so you can live your best and healthiest life!

Do you get pain in your lower back or hips? Pain after a long walk or first thing in the morning when you get out of bed? Do you struggle with pelvic alignment or mobility? Are you looking to improve and protect your posture as you age? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this class is for you! If you get pain anywhere in your lower back, pelvic, or hip regions, this class will show you tested and effective ways to improve the situation and with it, your health! Learn to balance and mobilize your joints in a way that will improve your alignment and posture, and create the environment for healing and productive progress in some of the body's most crucial joints. When the pelvis is balanced and aligned, the rest of the body has an easy time following suit. When the pelvis is out of balance, not only do we experience pain, but also enhanced wear and tear that increases the aging process in the joints we use to keep us mobile and out enjoying life! Join me in this class as we take both a restorative and preventative approach to caring for our SI Joints, Hips, and Health!

This therapeutic class will take you through a sequence designed to decompress your lower back, release it's fascial restrictions, and rebalance and mobilize your SI Joints. Don't know what those are? Don't worry, you're about to find out! And, you may be surprised to learn how much they affect the health of your back and hips! If you get pain in any of these positions please join me on the Discover & Learn Forum to post a question or observation about your experience. I'd be happy to answer and even post little video clips to show you how to adjust for any kind of pain or discomfort you might experience!

SI Joints & Hips’ is our most popular and often requested class topic. Since so many of us or working on this area as a top priority in our wellness routines, I like to dedicate numerous videos to the topic so we can keep learning new perspectives, insights, and inspirations as we continue to give our SI Joints and Hips the care they need and deserve! This class will teach you to understand where your SI Joints are and how they function, and will allow you to explore and consider an important question: Can your SI Joints move through their full range of motion? We will explore techniques to stabilize, decompress, mobilize, and repair the key areas that affect SI Joint and hip function in a routine that can be repeated regularly for maximum benefit!

In this class we journey through a process designed to relieve lower back pain, repair our SI Joints, lubricate our spine, and release the tissues in both our hips and back which commonly contribute to back pain in the first place. This class is designed for anyone with back pain, and is also ‘pre-natal’ safe, showing how to adapt these shapes at any stage of pregnancy to keep things safe and effective.

You'll notice we have 2 different Spinal Therapeutic Videos. Each one invites you through a complete series of long-holds postures designed to improve the 6 fundamental movements of the spine, helping to rebalance and integrate the spine as a cohesive functioning system. Although similar, these routines utilize different stretches to create slightly different effects. We recommend alternating their use in your home spinal care routine for a more complex approach to your spinal health! Have questions? Visit our Discover & Learn forum to post questions about any pain or discomfort your feeling in any of the poses, anatomy or physiology questions, and more! I'll be happy to answer your questions in the forum, and even to make a short video to show you how to adjust or align your asana to make them work for your unique body!

'If you seek health, look first to the spine.' - Socrates The human spine is an incredible structure that allows both stability and protection for our all-important central nervous system, but also allows the mobility needed to coordinate and support the movement of all parts of our body. The spine is one of nature's most highly evolved structures, and when properly cared for, is a highly resilient structure that can keep us healthy and mobile for our entire life. However, when spinal tensions get out of balance, things can quickly become painful as degenerative conditions set in, causing life enjoyment to decline. In this class, we look at the natural functions and ranges of movement which indicate a healthy spine, we learn to detect and understand where our spinal tension is out of balance, explore ways to rebalance and repair it's tissues, discs, and nerves, will find relief in the knowledge that even severe spinal damage can be improved or healed, and will learn a simple process of spinal restoration that will help get your spine back on track so you can live your best and healthiest life!

A class dedicated to the health of our spine. They say our entire life story is written in our spine. Let's add some space to the story with a routine designed to decompress our intervertebral discs and rebalance the fascial structures that support them!

Do you get pain in your lower back, butt, or hips? Do your hips or back feel stiff and achy when you get up after sitting for a while? Do you have tight hip flexors or have 'pinchy' spots in the front of your hips? Would you like to take care of your hips so you can continue to use them comfortably well into your old age? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then this class is for you! Today we will explore a deep decompression of our hips, Sacro-Iliac Joints, and lumbar spine. From fascial release, to mobilization, to deep long holds of stretches, we will work our way thoroughly through these areas and give them the love and repair they deserve!

This this class we will complete our 3-week exploration on the causes of back pain and how to get rid of it! First we looked at the health and balance of our spine in class 1, followed by a deep exploration of how our pelvis and hips tie into this issue, and finally we are ready to address the 3rd important element that every healthy back needs - a strong and functional core! In this class we take a look at Core Fundamentals as we seek to understand how adequate support from various core muscles can stabilize, support, and protect our back in a way that promotes healing and the reduction of pain in our back. Learn simple, effective, and accessible techniques that will help you gain strength, remove inches from around your waist without agrivating other injuries, and heal your back pain in the process!

In this class we discuss the anatomy of the pelvic floor as we learn to engage ‘Mula Bandha’, one of the most important foundational principles of yoga. We will learn to engage the pelvic floor during breathing, and will learn how to use Mula Bandha to take us deeper into posture which require balance, stability, twisting, and squatting. This class is beneficial for men and women alike, and if you would like to improve or prevent any of the following, this class is for you! • Tone and strengthen your pelvic floor and abdomen • Improve pelvic stability and posture • Improve digestion, respiratory function, urinary function, sexual function, and cardiovascular function • Prevent and improve incontinence and bladder infections • Prevent and improve vaginal or rectal prolapse • Increases prostate health in men, preventative for premature ejaculation, and increase sexual health and stamina • Increase libido and sexual vigor • Improve kidney health and kidney stones • Promote a healthy sense of stability, security, and grounding This class is not only 'pre-natal safe', but highly recommended at any stage of pre or post natal care!

Welcome to SI Joints & Hips - the Therapy Ball Edition! In this class we continue to explore ways to connect with our bodies and find the areas that may be contributing to pain in your hips, SI Joints, or lower back. Today we dedicate the entire class to fascial rolling techniques, loosening all the way around the pelvic crest, back to front. From back pain or injury, to pelvic misalignment, chronic deep hip pain, sciliosis, pelvic or abdominal surgery, c-sections, and inflammatory digestive conditions, there is one common theme which all of these things share - adhesion and scar tissue! Scar tissue and adhesions happen where the fascial network of the body has either been damaged, badly inflamed, cut, dehydrated, excessively compressed, over lengthened, or any combination of. These adhesions restrict healthy pelvic movement and can often be the hidden cause of pain which manifests in other areas of the body. I invite you to give this sequence a try. If you make it through without a single sore spot or wincy pain face, then you know your pelvis is in top notch shape! If not, don't worry, repeat this class regularly and one day it will get there!