Is This The Ultimate Restorative Yoga Video For Sleepy Glutes?

If you work behind a desk for more than 30 or 60 minutes a day, who doesn't?

You might notice a limited range of movement available when you get up to do something else. For me this took the form of stiffness from the lower to the upper body. It felt like I was wrapped in shrink wrap 24/7. Not very efficient when you want to work well, sitting, standing, moving, and breathing with full breaths that nourish the body in the process - aka being upright.

I mean I don't need to explain to you how when the front of the body is caved in it wears you out faster than if all sides of the body extended upright throughout a work session. But this hunched over faulty posture and movement became so deeply ingrained in me that at first when I thought I was lifting upright all I was really doing was raising the chin up but the upper body was mostly still hunched over.

Now the world wasn't built in a day but that doesn't mean a lot cannot happen through specific work each day.

Time To Wake Up Some Sleepy Parts of the Body & Mind!

Let's talk about a large muscle group, the gluteals (or buttocks), you know the ones you sit on all day. The muscles that are supposed to help stabilize and move the hips. Yeah, it's time to wake them up... Unlock the hamstrings and get to sitting, standing, working, and playing more efficiently as humans were designed - without tucking the pelvis under and pushing the femur to the front of the hip socket (not very efficient).

A Notice About The Side Effects

Side effects of this work include:

• Less injury prone
• Less chronic stiffness
• Strength balanced with Flexibility (and vice versa)
• Increased natural energy
• Increased height; spinal decompression
• Looking leaner without necessarily losing weight (although you may find the weight naturally come off as you start to and rediscover the joy of movement when it's done efficiently again)
• The possibility to move without external props and moving devices again (yes I believe it's possible for all of us no matter what condition we're in).
• The ability to play with kids, grand kids, nieces/nephews for hours in a flow state.
• Perhaps the one closest to my heart is learning to be an ASSET more than a LIABILITY in whatever organization I'm entering to serve in.

Now getting to the goods...

The following is a 30-minute follow along practice video taught by a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (like a physical therapist if you ask me).

It is helping me go from stiff as a board to where I can push up regularly into...

A-ha! It is possible to do something at 35 that I was able to do so easily as a kid!

But more than that, my forward bends started to feel efficient and unbroken again (like I could actually hinge from the pelvis instead of just rounding from the lower back).

I can reach my toes sometimes too but the photo above is where I am most the time - working to the extend the top of the sternum through the arms as the shoulders move into a more efficient position on the back. This phase is a critical but often overlooked piece in efficient forward bending.

No joke, but this work is quite challenging to someone who typically works behind a computer or desk.

Sometimes I think, what has this society led us to?

Here we go - perhaps the best 30 minute office restorative break?

You tell me!

Or if you only have a 5 or 10 minute break, do that and share how you feel after here in the Facebook accountability group, Inflexible's Anonymous!

The first time I practiced the last asana (pose) in the video (shown in the thumbnail) my leg felt like dead weight but even so I noticed some life in it as I felt the intense but workable stretch to extend the leg and foot building the activation needed to lift the leg with the glutes and inner leg. It's possible!

This Type of Practice is My Favorite Kind of Restorative Practice!

I imagine this might be an efficient practice for me to continually work on if say I want to be able to do office work from a wide-legged straddle position one day (which apparently hardly anyone does because neither Google or social media show a lot of results for but to me it seems like an efficient office work posture - I'm trying to embrace this uniqueness).

To wrap up, this video inspired me more than any other yoga or physical therapy exercise related video on YouTube thus far. Showing me that there is a more efficient way to unlock stiff hips (which also tends to unlock stiff shoulders and upper back the more you extend, widen the collarbones, and connect the arms into the shoulder socket - that's another article) than just stretching or sliding into a front or middle split like this.

If you want to join me in the accountability group I created to bridge the gap between inefficient posture and movement that's more injury prone to more efficient posture and movement - join me on the Facebook page, Inflexible's Anonymous. I will be sharing progress updates and encouraging everyone (and myself) stay accountable when they aren't sure if anything is happening yet.

Until next time, practice well!

A Few Notes About The Author

Danielle has been practicing Iyengar Yoga in person, online, and at home since 2016. She highly recommends working in person with a teacher at the start. You can find a certified teacher near you, https://bksiyengar.com/modules/Teacher/teacher.asp.

PS. If you like to practice a lot of Vinyasa/Power/Heated Flow yoga I believe this kind of practice will improve all of that.