Today we’re going to take a look at Smarter and Stronger Back Muscles Part Two.
It’s just a little twist on the exercise we looked at last week, very, very powerful. Last week we reviewed a simple exercise for Smarter and Stronger Back Muscles.
Now, what I want to do this week is show you a different version of, it’s the same exercise, but we’re going to do is we’re going to transition from working the muscles on the outer part of the spine to working on the muscles toward the inner part of the spine. You’ll feel that quite distinctly as you do the exercise.
Now it is almost identical to last week with one, what looks like minor but really major exception in terms of the movements that we have to make. If you remember last week I said, “If you have neck problems, or your head is uncomfortable getting into this extended rotated position, or you get dizzy, don’t use your head in this exercise.
Just focus on using your shoulders and bottom of your neck.
To compare and contrast, let me show you very quickly what we did last week. The exercise from last week to create the tension we went into a knee bend. We did an anterior tilt of our pelvis. We lifted up on that same side.
We then rotated to that side, bent to that side, and then tried to touch the back of the head to the hip. That was the simple exercise.
Now this week, the major difference is going to be in the rotational aspect because rather than rotating to that side, we have to rotate away, but keep everything else the same. When you rotate away, again you’re going to feel the muscle contraction much closer to the midline in the spine.
Like last week, what I want to start off with is a little bit of a stretch so that we can kind of mobilize that area, and then we’ll go into the contraction. I’m going to again work on the right side of my body. Please follow along. We’ll do everything the same, and then you can explore it on the left side.
First of all, you’re going to bend your knees. You’re going to tuck your pelvis, kind of a posterior pelvic tilt, and because I’m working on my right side, I want to get it under stretch, I’m going to lift the left side of my pelvis up. I’m already kind of pre-stretching that low back.
Now remember last week like I said, we tilted and rotated away. This time what we’re going to have to do is we’re going to have to tilt and rotate toward. Does that make sense to you?
Now from here, we’re going to roll the top of our head forward, keep adding that rotation in, lateral bend, and that’s going to give me a nice starting stretch. Again, be careful of your head and neck, because this is a weird position to be in.
Once we’ve gotten that, and it will feel a little bit different to you, again because it’s closer to the midline in the spine, we’re now going to reverse all of that and go into the contraction. Bend your knees. Do an anterior tilt to the pelvis. Raise the pelvis up on the right side, because it’s the side we’re going to make tight now.
Once again last week we rotated toward, so this week, we need to rotate away. Once we’ve rotate away, we’re now going to bend to that side and try to touch the back of our head to our hips.
As you focus on that like I said, it’s going to move it from the outside of the spine to the midline. It will feel really, really different and a little bit weird at first. It may take you some repetition to really figure out the angles.
The main thing I want you to do with this exercise is play with it. Play with both versions so that you can really start to develop a better map, a better understanding of the different muscles that travel down and support your spine and move you and maintain posture and do all kinds of other good stuff for us.
Most people do not have good awareness of the muscles of their back. This particular style of exercise will increase your, if you want to think of it, movement intelligence for all these muscles, and usually will help reduce pain and improve movement.
Go carefully.
Make sure to keep the tension three out of ten in the beginning. Play with different angels, because as you play with different angles, you’ll be able to move the tension up and down your back.
Sometimes you’ll find that one spot that’s like, “Oh, that’s perfect. I’ve been trying to, to free that area for a long, long time.”
Give this a shot. If you any questions about either last week’s blog or this one, please let me know. Otherwise good luck. I hope you really enjoyed these.
