Unlocking Spinal Mobility

I've been using this image this week a lot, so I figured I would share it with you.

The image starts in a GYROKINESIS® class, where we're doing arching when you extend your spine, and then curling, where you're rounding and flexing your spine.

We do a couple of repetitions in each direction, and I always tell the client to start slow at 50% of her range of motion. On the second repetition, 70%. And the third one, 85%. So you're gradually bending.

Stiff Spine, Bendy Spine

The image that always seems to come to mind is if you've ever taken a paperclip and unfolded it but then chosen to create a new bend in a flatter region. You start bending it, and it's stiff. But then, as you keep going, as it heats up, it gets bendy, and then it becomes a little easier to bend at that area.

That is the image I keep coming back to. As I bend and move my spine, everything initially feels sticky, stiff, and rigid. But as I keep going, the heat builds, muscles are moving, blood flow is changing, the lymph system is going, and things start heating up, moving, mobilizing, and becoming more supple.

This image even works for side bending and twisting—any spinal motions you make where it starts to get a little sticky.

Repeat the move a few times, and it gets a little softer. Not anatomically correct, but it's a good image. You want to start slow and adapt your tissues to the movement and gradually make it bigger and bigger and bigger until it feels like you're at your maximum range of motion.

So is your spine like a paperclip? Probably not. But this image might help you think about it that way.