Sit on the floor or bed with the back of your legs touching, recline and bolster shoulders and head. Give space for the ribcage to relax down towards the floor.
=> I suggest using this position for all the lying-down exercises. It should be super comfortable. Adjust as needed.
=> I suggest using this position for all the lying-down exercises. It should be super comfortable. Adjust as needed.
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Know your psoas (blog post) - pronounce "so as"
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Ribs up. Feel yourself breathe out, pause and let gravity relax your ribs down, which may take minutes, days or months.
Ribs down
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What’s the difference between slouching at the laptop and psoas releasing at the laptop?
The psoas release (bottom picture) puts the body in a position where you find the resting length of your psoas major muscles (one on each side of your pelvis). The idea is to anchor the lower part of the muscle (which attaches to your leg bone, femur) on the floor, hamstrings touching, and to adjust the height of the upper part (which attaches to the lumbar spine) in order to restore length in the soft tissue.
The release is passive. In other words, there is no pulling or stretching applied to the tissue, either by you or by someone else.
All you do is relax there and let gravity work for you, relaxing your spine (to which the psoas attaches) towards the floor. You’re neither flexing nor extending your hip but you’re finding the “neutral” position or “centre” of each muscle (one may be shorter than the other!). Everyone will be slightly different:
This resting position will help undo an excess of flexion which most of us suffer from due to excessive sitting (hip flexion), including cycling, rowing and walking/running on a treadmill.
The red lines show the femurs. The green line represents the spine. The blue line shows how far my ear is forward of my shoulder. The grey line represents the psoas – shortened in the top photo, lengthened in the bottom photo.
To sum up, the first position will give you backache and neckache, the second will give you some relief and will prevent both!
Basic movement prescription for a sore back - move gently within a pain free range to soothe your nervous system:
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On the left pictures, it looks like my pelvis has tipped a bit as I moved my ribcage. Note to self: I need to practise moving my ribcage without my pelvis! I think I exaggerated a bit too much for the photo!
It doesn't have to be perfect, just go in the direction of "neutral". Play with the movement and do what you can.
It doesn't have to be perfect, just go in the direction of "neutral". Play with the movement and do what you can.
