Kathy DeWet: I'd like to share with you a movement pattern
that's known as the "Spine Six." So our spines can
flex forward and extend. They can hyperextend a
little bit, which means kind-of going back behind
our neutral extended decision. We can side bend
from side to side, and there's rotation in the
spine as well. I'm going to demonstrate this
spine six series in a number of different
positions. It's a great little exercise break. You
could even perform the seated version in a chair.
I'm going to show it to you in a kneeling position
for my seated version. It makes an easier
transition to demonstrate the position on all
fours as well. So the spine six will be flexion
and extension side bending left and right. So
that's four movements and rotation to both sides.
So beginning in a kneeling position you can kneel
on your heels if that feels best on your knees or
you can open up the soles of your feet to the sky.
Or you could do this seated in a chair equally
well for the spine six pattern. So I'm going to
seek alignment: pelvis nice and square, rib cage or
just floating over the pelvis, and then making sure
that I draw the chin a little bit down and back,
leveling out the crown of my head, and getting my
ears as best as I can over the shoulders. And I'm
going to draw the elbows back. And this is going
to be my extended position. So in extension, and
then I'm going to take a breath then and I'm going
to flex the thoracic spine keeping the lumbar
spine and lower back nice and stable. So, breathing in.
And breathing out.
We're getting some thoracic flexion here.
Then the neutral extension.
I'm doing my best to keep that sort of a sensation
of going up and over with the flexion and not
collapsing as I flex so that I'm filling with breath.
It takes a little bit of an angle for a side
bending so inside bending I'm actually going to
hike the hip up a little bit so that I'm not
getting a huge amount of lateral flexion. I kind-
of get my weight into one sit bone and the other
one comes out. So it's kind of a rocking from side
to side using the hand for support and just
getting a little bit of lateral flexion. You can
add on to that a gentle kind of picking up of that
elbow and that'll get a little more space in that
thoracic spine which is a lot of what we're
targeting here. Those are the areas that tend to
be tight.
And often if we're real tight in our thoracic
spine we actually feel it lower down. So we get a
real tired lower back at the end of the day
because the lower back ends up absorbing all the
motion.
And then the rotation could be as simple as just
placing a hand by your heel and looking back.
What I like to add to this is a hip extension so
that as I come down to one hand I push the hips up.
And again I could add a reach so that I get some
more stimulation in the thoracic spine and get a
nice hip opening. So those are some little
variations. If those don't feel appropriate, again,
just the rotation. And make sure that you use the
eyes to look over the shoulder getting that nice
cervical spine stimulation as well. Let's take a
look at the spine six when we perform it on all
fours. So when I'm on all fours we're going to
again have an option to place my feet in
dorsiflexion if that feels good stretching out the
arches toes or curled under or opening up the
ankle joint by placing the source of the feet to
the sky. I'm going to align my shoulders so that
the crease of the elbows is facing forward and the
shoulder blades are nice and flat along the back.
And then as I breathe in, I'm going to push with
my hand.
Let my head hang and again I'm going more for
thoracic movement than I am lumber's. I have some
hip movement here but I'm not really trying to get
a lumbar stretch here and then I can sink back to
neutral. But if I'm on all fours it's pretty safe
to go into small range of hyperextension, so
kind-of move the base around. And then [inhale] stretch that up
and back.
If you have any neck issues and looking up is
uncomfortable, there's no need to add that is a
variation.
Now the lateral flexion on this is just looking
towards your heels and let your hips gently shift
from side to side. And so there's a little more
range of motion in this variation than we were
finding in the kneeling or seated variations.
And I'm going to give you several variations of rotation.
So with rotation if I lose one point of contact
and let one shoulder dip I'm already in a little
bit of rotation and I could just go from one side
to the other, letting the shoulder dip.
Or I could go in two directions I could let the
shoulder dip and then lift that elbow up as if it was
on a little string, and get some activation in two
directions with one side mobile.
I really like the way this one feels, especially with
the elbow pulling up, it gets in, at least in my
body, gets to some tight spaces and opens things
up a little bit. So again it's the dip of one
shoulder and then we use the upper back to pull up
and stretch that elbow up towards the ceiling.
I do have one more rotational variation that I
really, really like. I'm going to face into the camera for
this one to back up just a little. And what I'm
going to do is turn my fingers towards each other
and kind of create a big round barrel-like shape
with my arms. And then I'm going to dip through
there kind of like how dryer's tumble clothes. They
tumble around.
And this gets a lot of the connective tissue from
the wrist, forearm,shoulders, and chest, and thoracic
spine moving together.
And of course we want to go both directions.
So I'll show you what's happening in the spine from the side.
I breathe in, I get that thoracic stretch, and then
I sink down--my spine is actually an extension when
I'm down at the bottom near the hands.
Going the other way.
So those are a few variations of the spine six.
And then I invite you to even explore this when
you're standing in. You can go through the same
movements without using the kneeling base or the
seated base, and see if you can still get the same
movements. The thoracic motion and flexion/
extension, this small range of side bend, and then
rotation and just see what you can get. But it's
healthy for us to gently mobilize our spines in
its natural ranges of motion. And there's not a
lot of range between each segment, so moving
gently and in small ranges of motion such as is
accessed by this exercise series can give you
great benefits, and it's simple to work in to your
daily routine and give yourself a few little
movement breaks with the Spine Six. Give it a try
move often, and feel better.