The flat back

I don’t know what the first thing you notice is when you look at a person, maybe their hair, or their clothes, or eyes, or the sound of their voice, or the smell of their fragrance, but the first thing I notice is someone’s posture. By looking at someone’s posture, I can quickly see the potential problems that one may have to deal with throughout their day. Just by being aware of correct posture, you can alleviate daily discomfort around the neck, shoulders, mid-back, low back and potentially hips and knees. I was just asking one of my clients about the sciatica pain that she had when she first started Pilates. She said she hasn’t had that kind of pain since she started. Pilates and yoga address the faults found in people’s posture.

Today, I want to finish my 3-part series on the traditional postural types. The Flat-Back Posture is the third and final traditional postural types that we will look at in this series. All things posturally considered, I think that this posture suffers the least of the three from postural ailments. Often the abdominal muscles are strong, and even though the back muscles are slightly elongated, they are not weak. Unlike the lordodic – kyphotic posture, the flat back has no signs of “hyper” extension or “hyper” flexion. In this context, it is good to avoid the variations of “hyper.”

Joan Bentley started doing yoga with me through the Parkinson Recreational Center and found that she loved it. She recently told me a story that I think is worth sharing. Her and her husband just returned from a six-day kayak trip. As I was talking to her about her shoulders, she told me that one night after a long rigorous day of fighting ocean currents, she was woken up by the tension around her shoulders and neck. Instead of getting worried or panicky about this new development, she simply remembered her breathing, relaxation and stretching techniques for her shoulders and neck and implemented them. After some time, she found that the tension had subsided. She woke up the next day feeling totally fine and ready to get back in the kayak. She was so thankful to yoga for the body intelligence she had gained to be aware enough to pinpoint the problem and confident enough to trust her ability to heal herself. Yoga helps one to develop body intelligence necessary to, not just survive but, excel in life.

Therefore, the flat back needs to emphasize mobility and restoration of the normal curves of the spine. This requires moving the spine through flexion, extension and rotation, and encourages a pelvic placement whereby the pubic bone and the hip bones maintaining a straight line (neutral). Let’s look at some exercises that will help the flat-back posture.

Spine twist: maintains a neutral low back alignment while working on rotation of the middle spine.

Sit up nice a tall (could sit on a chair and keep the knees together) with the legs and feet together. Exhale and twist to one side without letting the feet slide apart. Maintain your length throughout the exercise.

Roll up: works to create mobility through the whole spine in flexion.

Start lying down with your arms by your sides. Exhale and slowly lift your spine sequentially off the floor, return to the floor the same way.

a. One leg circle: targets the transverse abdominals by challenging the ability to stay still in neutral (hip bones and pubic bone on the same plane or line) while the leg moves.

Lying on your back with both knees bent and one leg lifted and parallel with the ceiling. Don’t let your pelvis rock around on the tail bone while you move the lifted leg in a small circle.

b. Leg lift: targets the hip flexor muscles.

Same position as above except one leg is straight, not circling but lifting up and down from the floor. Like the above move, don’t let the pelvis move while you are moving the leg.

Swan dive prep:targets spine mobility in extension.

Start lying down on your front, legs wide and turned out, hands just in front of your shoulders and your forearms and elbows on the floor and close to your side ribs. As you press into your hands and lift the chest, keep the shoulders lengthening away from the ears throughout the movement. Lift up only to where the pubic bone is on the floor and where you feel no pain in the back and can keep the shoulders down. You do not have to come to straight arms.

Forward fold:stretches the spine and hamstrings.

With something under your hands to press into, fold your body at the hips allowing your chest to be drawn towards the thighs. Try to have your knees straight so that you can maximize the stretch in your hamstrings. Breath!

Please remember that our posture is a product of many factors and reasons. Whatever the reason, we have tools that help us help ourselves. Pilates and yoga movements are tools available to us that help us manage and overcome the various postural obstacles that keep us back from moving with freedom.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.