Unwind the upper back

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Literally one of my most favorite lessons. I’m not kidding, although my students will tell you I say this all the time. The connections unfolding from the top down and bottom up bring a growing delight as I wake up parts of myself that felt hidden. I love the feeling of instant responsiveness at the end. It’s like a whole constellation of points of awareness is rubbed into a shiny, bright sheen.

Version of flexors and extensors with variations on eyes following the hands.

Other versions of flexors and extensors:
43 Tilt knees, lengthen arms
76 & 77 Coordinating flexors and extensors
87 Tilt knees, rotate spine, fold chest
91 Tilt knees, roll chest and head
211 Eyes, neck, arms, triangle (focuses on the eyes and neck)
380 Gentle twisting with flexors and extensors

An eye-opening lesson in how the upper back supports the neck—really, truly supports it. Often we get stuck in moving “just the neck” without the rest of the spine. This lesson reverses that habit. Many of my clients find enormous benefit in restoring this connection to the neck because then the neck doesn’t have to work so hard!

For more like this, see:
57 Integrate neck and upper back
233 Ear to hand with fluid neck and eyes
215 Sphinx, sink spine, slide shoulders

For general neck lessons, see Help for the neck.

Feeling the head move with the upper spine and ribs wakes up how much support the neck really gets from the rest of the bones. Feel more freedom in the head and neck as you clarify how support in different places lets go of more and more tension. A very cool lesson, but please do it gently!

Rolling across the spine can unravel all kinds of tension. This lesson circles the arms in the air to give your upper back a chance to press into the floor at every angle. This kind of “massage” between the shoulders stops the constant gripping we usually do. It's a lovely lesson that I turn to again and again when I have hunchy shoulders.

This lesson opens up the upper back right between the shoulder blades, plus with some oscillation up and down the spine you feel like you have a new back!

Sinking the spine between the shoulder blades is a lovely feeling because for many folks, the shoulders are hunched forward, far apart from the spine. Bringing the shoulders together in a functional move, rather than a forced, “pull your shoulders back!” move is vastly different, and yields much better results. This lesson really gets the spine moving between the shoulders, and the shoulders start moving across the ribs like they’re an open field.

(AY 96)

Learn to lift the head with maximum intelligence. Even though we are all wicked smart, we tend to lift the head in the dumbest way possible, with just the neck. A baby, with an intelligent nervous system, uses the whole back. We forget this as adults. The back muscles get hijacked for other tasks.

This lesson is a very baby-like process of activating the upper back to support the head and neck. You’ll feel taller, more upright, with a sense of lightness in the upper back.

(Mia Segal/Gaby Yaron, 1977-78 evening classes)

Second half: More to do with how the head can be leveraged with the middle of you rather than working hard all the time.

This is a yummy lesson that softens the whole back. It allows the ribs to move and the pelvis to swing underneath them in a free, easy, natural human way. Not a kind of robotic teeter, which all of us do when we are stiff and tense. This lesson rolls your upper back from the top down, and then rolls you lower back from the bottom up. You can't do this lesson enough. Feel the tone change all across the back as you flatten out like a pancake.

It invites easy swinging of the legs and fluid movement of the trunk. This is lovely to do at the end of the day after computer work, or before a run so you are not gripping in the ribs—leftover from computer work! Any time you brace in the ribs, the low back will compensate. Feel how these two parts work together for maximum power in the trunk.

For similar lessons, see all the “coordinating flexors and extensors” lessons listed under, and inclusive of, 43 Tilt legs, lengthen arms.

Also see 38 Rocking and turning frees the spine and neck

And the flexors and extensors lessons:
380 Gentle twisting with flexors and extensors
76 & 77 Coordinating flexors and extensors
87 Tilt knees, rotate spine, fold chest
91 Tilt knees, roll chest and head
211 Eyes, neck, arms, triangle
3 Tilt the legs and free the neck (Esalen version)