Mobilize That Spine with The Feldenkrais Shoulder Spine Integrator
The Hunched-Over, Immobile Spine
Throughout the day, many of us find ourselves scrolling away on your phones, working from a desk position, or driving a car that leaves us with rounded shoulders, a forward head posture, and an immobile spine. These orthopedic tendencies can lead to compensatory patterns when we try exerting ourselves in the gym, on the court, or even with simple tasks at home leading to pain, dysfunction, and even injury.
What can we do about it? The trick is to consistently practice good posture with some added mobility drills that will give us some short term benefits, to keep up safe, and if practiced continually, what will lead to long term gains in our mobility and functionality. Enter the Feldenkrais Shoulder Spine Integrator!!!!!
Thoracic Spine! Mobilize!
Hopefully you got that Transformers joke… But in all seriousness - almost everyone of us could use a little T. Spine Mobilization in our life. If you are not familiar, this is the middle portion of our spine, 12 vertebrae that have ribs attached to them and continually get rounded when we arch our head forward and let our shoulders round.
Over time, this puts us more and more into a flexed(forward) position, restricting our ability to extend our t-spine and stand up straight. This also hinders our ability to rotate/ twist because we have a greater capacity to when we are in an extended position.
When we raise our arms overhead, we need a decent amount of extension and rotation, and without, we are forced to compensate in the hips, low back, and shoulders causing injury and poor movement patterns.
Now Let’s Get Movin’!
Now this amazing move was created by Moshe Feldenkrais was a Ukrainian-Isaraeli engineer, physicist, inventor, martial artist and student of human development who created a system of physical exercise to increase self-awareness through movement. This is one of his moves that helps connect the shoulder and hip via the spine through movement patterns paired with breath.
I won’t go into too much detail as I delve into it in the video below but here are a few tips!
Always keep good “erect” posture with your spine straight, shoulders back, bottom side off the ground.
Your breath determines your speed. Remember, build self-awareness by letting the natural inhalation and exhalation guide you when to stop/start the movement
Start with Phase 1 for a few days then 2 for a few days and so on
Consistent practice will yield the best results!!!!
Enjoy fam! Reach out with any questions!