3 Key Ways to Build a Supple, Flexible Spine with Yoga

Let’s look at three key ways to build a supple, flexible spine with yoga. In a double win, these three movement skills are also the foundation for a strong core.

Why is it important to work on improving the fluid movement and flexibility of your spine? 

As we get into midlife (let’s say 50’s and up..) it’s common to feel a bit creaky! Everything starts to feel stiffer and you’re less ‘fluid’ in movement .

Regular spinal movement will:

1.  Help to keep the neck, upper back and lower back out of discomfort and pain, 

2. Make standing tall with good posture feel natural, and optimize breathing.  

3. Help fluid, easeful movement in everyday life, for reaching, bending, squatting down, doing sports, everything!!

4. Spinal awareness and control is also the foundation for a STRONG CORE (more on that in the core blog here).

Let’s look at three key ways we can improve and build a more supple, flexible spine via our yoga practice. 

1. Articulating along the whole spine

Ideally, a spine should be able to move to full capacity at every single joint (24 in total!) along its entire length - but that is often not the case. A few vertebrae in a row might be a bit ‘rusty’ and stiffer, moving in a chunk.

To compensate for the lack of movement, the joint above or below the stiffer chunk will have to do more movement and end up overworking as a ‘hinge’ point. Sometimes a line of muscles at that point becomes sore (across the ‘bra line’ area is common). Where the joints are a bit ‘stuck’, our brain won’t register or connect to this less moving area so well, so the stiffness gets built in further.

The solution is regular, targeted movement, using all the muscles to move each individual joint along the spine. It's a bit like adding oil to a rusty bicycle chain and then moving each link back and forth repeatedly to loosen it up. Then the spine can articulate in a smooth, even, wave-like movement.

There are many step by step progressive moves to work on this.

Try this practice

Start to feel and work into the flatter ‘stuck’ bits by rolling up and down a wall, or lying down on the floor and rolling up and down the spine, using feedback from a solid surface and using muscular engagement to move the joints. 

The more regularly you practice spinal articulation in different positions (lying down, standing, kneeling, all fours) ,as we do in class, the more intricately you can feel how each part of your spine is moving. Over time, you’ll create more and more even movement and fluidity in your body.

2. Moving particular segments of the spine

The second key way to improve our spinal movement is to control moving it in segments. We want to be able to consciously isolate and move

•  the cervical spine - neck  (the easiest to do)

• the thoracic spine - upper back 

• the lumbar spine -  lower back 

This isolated control helps the brain to connect to the pelvis (moving the lumbar spine) and ribcage (moving the thoracic spine) as independent moveable parts, so that we can have options to make adjustments in different positions - more movement capacity. It also teaches the ability to stack the ribcage and pelvis to access the natural spinal curves - and the deeper core muscles.

Try this practice

video

3. Add load to build in the increasing movement capacity

Once we can articulate and segment the sections of the spine, we can progress to adding more load or weight-bearing demand on these joints (depending on individual capacity - for people with ostepenia or osteoporosis the muscular control is imprtant to build, slowly and ideally with guidance). 

This will help your brain map each joint and segment and have more control and options in movement.

Try this Practice

Here are two moves to add load to articulation and to segmenting the lumbar spine 

If these loaded moves feel hard to control, keep practicing the moves in the first videos above, and try  the loaded options again in a few weeks. The good news is building movement skills is progressive.

With this kind regular practice of spinal movement, your whole body is more able to share the load (ie work or effort) required in any movement, minimising some parts overworking and some underworking. This gives you beautifully easeful movement into your 50s and onwards.

Pat on the back for your commitment to your weekly yoga class - the yoga we do is brilliant for increasing healthy spinal movement.

Your turn: I’m interested to know if any of this was new info for you….what was interesting to think about or try out?

Look out for Part 3 on spinal movements in yoga poses!