Spine and upper back

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Such a relief to wake up the spine between the shoulder blades! In this short movement, you lie on the front, hold the head with the forehead down and start by swinging the pelvis side to side. As you smooth out the edges, the spine starts to articulate along each vertebrae. The shoulders, head, and neck are fixed, but the ribs and spine are inviting to slosh side to side.

Then you tilt the legs left and right while holding the head. This wakes up the spine and ribs.

On the back, you hug yourself and rock the upper back side to side on the back. Then extend each hand along the floor as you rock side to side. As you continue many easy rocking movements, the ribs let go of all the holding, especially between the shoulder blades.

For the full lesson on this, see 38 Rocking and turning frees the spine and neck.

This movement elicits a whole-self connection from the heels up to the head. It’s wonderful to do when you first get out of bed and feel stiff. With legs long, you flex the ankles and push through one ankle, then the other but you don’t grow longer leg bones so where does the movement come from?

You see it comes from the pelvis, then the ribs, and the spine…then your whole self. Feel the left waist as you lengthen the right heel. Now feel the head. How does the head move as you push through each heel?

TIP: This movement is done in the plane of the floor. Avoid lifting a hip or a knee, which is compensating or avoiding a movement your system does not know yet. Instead, think of scooching along the floor.

Eventually, there’s a smooth, soft, easy connection from the heels all the way to the turning of the head where there is no excess muscular work, just a responsiveness to the pushing of the heels.

For the whole lesson that elicits this movement, see 146, 147 Lengthening and expanding, standing tall

A slow dissection of the bone-by-bone turning of the spine to wake up the spine between the shoulders. Lying on the belly, you tilt the legs to the side, feeling the thigh bone turning the hips which turns the pelvis and then picks up the low back. In this movement, as in the first experiment, you hold the head still and tilt the lower legs. Feel how the spine adapts depending on which direction your head is turned.

With the head to one side and the legs long and wide, rock your pelvis side to side with a light, easy swing. Allow the spine and ribs to move. Change the head over many times.

Similar to the first sequence, but slower and with more variations in the legs.

For another lesson like this, see 220 Twisting with head fixed.

This is a wonderful sequence for smooth, easy walking as you differentiate the lower trunk and the upper trunk with lots of gentle rocking and twisting.

You hug yourself with your arms and rock the chest side to side to soften the chest, and then cross one leg over the other and tile the legs while the arms are out to the side. This tilting movement asks the ribs to roll around on top of the shoulder blades—it is such a yummy loosening and letting go.

For a longer lesson like this, see 217 Roll chest, point elbows, lengthen spine

A short exploration of tone along the spine, wonderful for letting go of tension between the shoulders and restoring upright balance. With your feet standing, you push and pull with the feet to elicit a little jiggle, just gripping the floor a tiny bit to create friction that transfers force through your spine, a little oscillation “like a skewer,” as Moshe says. Allow your jaw to be soft, your teeth to be separated, and your eyes to be soft.

Then you cross one leg over the other and continue oscillating. This asymmetry asks the bones to move clearly and precisely without you using your habitual muscle patterns. Plus, you’re out of gravity so you are not dealing with all the anti-gravity muscles.

For a wonderful lesson like this, see 64 Oscillating across the whole back

This is useful for balance. I often give this to clients who need to feel the support structure of the bones, which is everyone. When our bones are not under us, we end up using too much muscular work to move through space. It makes sense, but we fail to refine this skeletal connection and live with a “good enough” relationship to the ground until we are injured, have a stroke, or lose function in some other way.

With clarity comes ease and elegance. Use this short sequence to find that clarity and stop hauling yourself around.

For a full lesson on this, see 36 A flexible spine connects to the feet.

A little mini-pelvic clock with the variation of the knees out to the side and the feet together. A very “connecting up” movement, from the feet to the top of the head as you go bone-by-bone through the spine with gentle rocking. Use many different initiations and positions of the hips to help clarify the movement along the spine. So freeing for the posture, any tension and gripping in the belly, and any holding along the neck.

TIP: Do not let the legs hang on the ligaments of the hips. Don’t strain or stretch but hold them a little bit up.

For a full lesson like this, see 18 Rolling pelvis to soften low back and ribs