MOVE YOUR CURVES: YOUR SPINE IS WAVY TOO
Sit tight, keep your back straight, so many hours in front of the computer hurt my neck, I’m stuck, activate CORE, I know it’s my bad posture… Do you recognize yourself in any of these sentences?
In times of confinement, teleworking and not knowing how to position the body when doing exercises at home, made me pay more attention to posture, as patients came with a lot of pain because of this.
I knew the importance of posture, even if I hadn’t given it enough, so now we emphasize using it as something that adds to us and doesn’t stop us.
Get your back straight! It is curious when we hear this, since looking at the body from the front, it is true that the spine is straight (unless there is scoliosis), but in profile, it has the shape of bones, it is wavy. So realize that placing your back straight would be keeping your original curves, no more, no less. Without increasing and/or decreasing them.
Here are 4 tips to start feeling the movement of your spine:
- To get your back straight, start by focusing on your lumbar curve or lumbar lordosis, the one where you stick, at the height where you place your hands when you put your arms in a jug. By moving your pelvis you can make this lordosis increase, decrease, and be in neutral, which would be your original curve shape, nothing more, nothing less.
- The same with your other curve, the dorsal or kyphosis, the well-known hump. You move it from the clavicle: if you put your shoulders together, you get more of a hump, if you put your shoulder blades or shoulder blades together you make the curve go inwards, it would be a “breast lift”. And when resting from these two forced positions, you have your neutral dorsal curve, your “hump”, no more and no less.
- As we have seen, lumbar lordosis curves to one side, and dorsal kyphosis to another, so remember: to remove the chest there is no reason to remove the butt and vice versa. Being straight is not the same as being straight, forcing the position of the two curves.
- And at the nape of the neck, we have the other curve, where your skull rests. Here you are guided by your gaze. Seen from the front, it’s your original curve, looking at the ground you straighten it, looking at the ceiling you arch it more.
At Somsalut we are passionate about the functioning of the human body and its movement. And in consultation, we realize that we have not been taught to move the body with awareness. And this knowledge of how you position your back when you sit in front of the computer, how you look at your cell phone, how you pick up a weight, how you do any exercise in the gym, means that:
- You can prevent injuries
- Work the muscles efficiently
- It helps you in the recovery processes
- Stand straighter.
We know that part of the reason we go to the physiotherapist or the osteopath is bad posture, why not use it to your advantage and not against you?
And you, do you know how to place your curves? Move your spine and find your axis, align!