1 00:00:10,970 --> 00:00:13,850 Kathy DeWet: I'd like to share with you a movement pattern 2 00:00:13,850 --> 00:00:18,740 that's known as the "Spine Six." So our spines can 3 00:00:18,740 --> 00:00:22,820 flex forward and extend. They can hyperextend a 4 00:00:22,820 --> 00:00:27,530 little bit, which means kind-of going back behind 5 00:00:27,540 --> 00:00:31,880 our neutral extended decision. We can side bend 6 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:36,680 from side to side, and there's rotation in the 7 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,050 spine as well. I'm going to demonstrate this 8 00:00:40,050 --> 00:00:42,890 spine six series in a number of different 9 00:00:42,890 --> 00:00:46,430 positions. It's a great little exercise break. You 10 00:00:46,430 --> 00:00:48,980 could even perform the seated version in a chair. 11 00:00:49,010 --> 00:00:51,890 I'm going to show it to you in a kneeling position 12 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:54,680 for my seated version. It makes an easier 13 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,620 transition to demonstrate the position on all 14 00:00:57,620 --> 00:01:03,110 fours as well. So the spine six will be flexion 15 00:01:03,110 --> 00:01:06,590 and extension side bending left and right. So 16 00:01:06,590 --> 00:01:10,200 that's four movements and rotation to both sides. 17 00:01:11,470 --> 00:01:15,980 So beginning in a kneeling position you can kneel 18 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,570 on your heels if that feels best on your knees or 19 00:01:20,570 --> 00:01:23,640 you can open up the soles of your feet to the sky. 20 00:01:24,230 --> 00:01:26,690 Or you could do this seated in a chair equally 21 00:01:26,690 --> 00:01:31,070 well for the spine six pattern. So I'm going to 22 00:01:31,070 --> 00:01:36,350 seek alignment: pelvis nice and square, rib cage or 23 00:01:36,370 --> 00:01:40,460 just floating over the pelvis, and then making sure 24 00:01:40,460 --> 00:01:43,190 that I draw the chin a little bit down and back, 25 00:01:43,610 --> 00:01:46,790 leveling out the crown of my head, and getting my 26 00:01:46,790 --> 00:01:50,600 ears as best as I can over the shoulders. And I'm 27 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:53,010 going to draw the elbows back. And this is going 28 00:01:53,010 --> 00:01:58,090 to be my extended position. So in extension, and 29 00:01:58,090 --> 00:02:00,340 then I'm going to take a breath then and I'm going 30 00:02:00,340 --> 00:02:03,850 to flex the thoracic spine keeping the lumbar 31 00:02:03,850 --> 00:02:08,020 spine and lower back nice and stable. So, breathing in. 32 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:12,310 And breathing out. 33 00:02:22,060 --> 00:02:24,870 We're getting some thoracic flexion here. 34 00:02:29,940 --> 00:02:31,670 Then the neutral extension. 35 00:02:42,730 --> 00:02:45,730 I'm doing my best to keep that sort of a sensation 36 00:02:45,730 --> 00:02:48,790 of going up and over with the flexion and not 37 00:02:48,790 --> 00:02:52,160 collapsing as I flex so that I'm filling with breath. 38 00:03:05,230 --> 00:03:08,640 It takes a little bit of an angle for a side 39 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:11,460 bending so inside bending I'm actually going to 40 00:03:11,460 --> 00:03:14,010 hike the hip up a little bit so that I'm not 41 00:03:14,010 --> 00:03:17,520 getting a huge amount of lateral flexion. I kind- 42 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,190 of get my weight into one sit bone and the other 43 00:03:20,190 --> 00:03:23,670 one comes out. So it's kind of a rocking from side 44 00:03:23,670 --> 00:03:27,090 to side using the hand for support and just 45 00:03:27,090 --> 00:03:32,910 getting a little bit of lateral flexion. You can 46 00:03:32,910 --> 00:03:36,480 add on to that a gentle kind of picking up of that 47 00:03:36,510 --> 00:03:40,170 elbow and that'll get a little more space in that 48 00:03:40,170 --> 00:03:43,140 thoracic spine which is a lot of what we're 49 00:03:43,140 --> 00:03:45,690 targeting here. Those are the areas that tend to 50 00:03:45,690 --> 00:03:46,230 be tight. 51 00:03:48,390 --> 00:03:51,900 And often if we're real tight in our thoracic 52 00:03:51,900 --> 00:03:56,790 spine we actually feel it lower down. So we get a 53 00:03:56,790 --> 00:03:59,340 real tired lower back at the end of the day 54 00:03:59,550 --> 00:04:01,950 because the lower back ends up absorbing all the 55 00:04:01,950 --> 00:04:02,500 motion. 56 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:07,410 And then the rotation could be as simple as just 57 00:04:07,410 --> 00:04:12,120 placing a hand by your heel and looking back. 58 00:04:14,130 --> 00:04:18,120 What I like to add to this is a hip extension so 59 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:23,420 that as I come down to one hand I push the hips up. 60 00:04:24,690 --> 00:04:29,100 And again I could add a reach so that I get some 61 00:04:29,100 --> 00:04:36,210 more stimulation in the thoracic spine and get a 62 00:04:36,210 --> 00:04:38,640 nice hip opening. So those are some little 63 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,330 variations. If those don't feel appropriate, again, 64 00:04:42,330 --> 00:04:45,540 just the rotation. And make sure that you use the 65 00:04:45,540 --> 00:04:49,020 eyes to look over the shoulder getting that nice 66 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,460 cervical spine stimulation as well. Let's take a 67 00:04:53,460 --> 00:04:57,870 look at the spine six when we perform it on all 68 00:04:57,870 --> 00:05:01,620 fours. So when I'm on all fours we're going to 69 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:04,680 again have an option to place my feet in 70 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,280 dorsiflexion if that feels good stretching out the 71 00:05:07,290 --> 00:05:10,740 arches toes or curled under or opening up the 72 00:05:10,740 --> 00:05:13,020 ankle joint by placing the source of the feet to 73 00:05:13,020 --> 00:05:17,340 the sky. I'm going to align my shoulders so that 74 00:05:17,610 --> 00:05:21,790 the crease of the elbows is facing forward and the 75 00:05:21,810 --> 00:05:24,510 shoulder blades are nice and flat along the back. 76 00:05:25,780 --> 00:05:27,870 And then as I breathe in, I'm going to push with 77 00:05:27,930 --> 00:05:28,500 my hand. 78 00:05:30,820 --> 00:05:33,380 Let my head hang and again I'm going more for 79 00:05:33,390 --> 00:05:36,390 thoracic movement than I am lumber's. I have some 80 00:05:36,390 --> 00:05:39,450 hip movement here but I'm not really trying to get 81 00:05:39,450 --> 00:05:44,550 a lumbar stretch here and then I can sink back to 82 00:05:44,550 --> 00:05:48,150 neutral. But if I'm on all fours it's pretty safe 83 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:52,260 to go into small range of hyperextension, so 84 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:59,180 kind-of move the base around. And then [inhale] stretch that up 85 00:05:59,240 --> 00:05:59,640 and back. 86 00:06:03,990 --> 00:06:06,540 If you have any neck issues and looking up is 87 00:06:06,540 --> 00:06:09,030 uncomfortable, there's no need to add that is a 88 00:06:09,030 --> 00:06:09,960 variation. 89 00:06:23,550 --> 00:06:26,740 Now the lateral flexion on this is just looking 90 00:06:27,100 --> 00:06:32,860 towards your heels and let your hips gently shift 91 00:06:32,860 --> 00:06:35,590 from side to side. And so there's a little more 92 00:06:36,010 --> 00:06:38,860 range of motion in this variation than we were 93 00:06:38,860 --> 00:06:42,160 finding in the kneeling or seated variations. 94 00:06:44,620 --> 00:06:47,940 And I'm going to give you several variations of rotation. 95 00:06:48,900 --> 00:06:52,050 So with rotation if I lose one point of contact 96 00:06:52,050 --> 00:06:54,810 and let one shoulder dip I'm already in a little 97 00:06:54,810 --> 00:06:57,570 bit of rotation and I could just go from one side 98 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:00,240 to the other, letting the shoulder dip. 99 00:07:05,220 --> 00:07:08,190 Or I could go in two directions I could let the 100 00:07:08,190 --> 00:07:12,750 shoulder dip and then lift that elbow up as if it was 101 00:07:12,750 --> 00:07:16,140 on a little string, and get some activation in two 102 00:07:16,140 --> 00:07:19,810 directions with one side mobile. 103 00:07:23,790 --> 00:07:26,760 I really like the way this one feels, especially with 104 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:30,570 the elbow pulling up, it gets in, at least in my 105 00:07:30,570 --> 00:07:35,910 body, gets to some tight spaces and opens things 106 00:07:35,910 --> 00:07:39,570 up a little bit. So again it's the dip of one 107 00:07:39,570 --> 00:07:44,050 shoulder and then we use the upper back to pull up 108 00:07:44,410 --> 00:07:47,970 and stretch that elbow up towards the ceiling. 109 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,420 I do have one more rotational variation that I 110 00:07:56,420 --> 00:08:00,700 really, really like. I'm going to face into the camera for 111 00:08:00,700 --> 00:08:03,460 this one to back up just a little. And what I'm 112 00:08:03,460 --> 00:08:05,740 going to do is turn my fingers towards each other 113 00:08:05,740 --> 00:08:10,780 and kind of create a big round barrel-like shape 114 00:08:11,020 --> 00:08:15,490 with my arms. And then I'm going to dip through 115 00:08:15,490 --> 00:08:20,530 there kind of like how dryer's tumble clothes. They 116 00:08:21,370 --> 00:08:22,480 tumble around. 117 00:08:24,910 --> 00:08:27,970 And this gets a lot of the connective tissue from 118 00:08:27,970 --> 00:08:31,540 the wrist, forearm,shoulders, and chest, and thoracic 119 00:08:31,540 --> 00:08:34,330 spine moving together. 120 00:08:36,390 --> 00:08:38,890 And of course we want to go both directions. 121 00:08:44,420 --> 00:08:47,770 So I'll show you what's happening in the spine from the side. 122 00:08:48,250 --> 00:08:51,850 I breathe in, I get that thoracic stretch, and then 123 00:08:51,850 --> 00:08:54,700 I sink down--my spine is actually an extension when 124 00:08:54,700 --> 00:08:57,820 I'm down at the bottom near the hands. 125 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:09,940 Going the other way. 126 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:20,570 So those are a few variations of the spine six. 127 00:09:20,690 --> 00:09:23,780 And then I invite you to even explore this when 128 00:09:23,780 --> 00:09:26,390 you're standing in. You can go through the same 129 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:28,940 movements without using the kneeling base or the 130 00:09:28,940 --> 00:09:31,820 seated base, and see if you can still get the same 131 00:09:32,230 --> 00:09:34,970 movements. The thoracic motion and flexion/ 132 00:09:34,970 --> 00:09:38,930 extension, this small range of side bend, and then 133 00:09:38,930 --> 00:09:41,660 rotation and just see what you can get. But it's 134 00:09:42,050 --> 00:09:45,380 healthy for us to gently mobilize our spines in 135 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:49,940 its natural ranges of motion. And there's not a 136 00:09:49,940 --> 00:09:53,270 lot of range between each segment, so moving 137 00:09:53,270 --> 00:09:57,740 gently and in small ranges of motion such as is 138 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:01,610 accessed by this exercise series can give you 139 00:10:01,610 --> 00:10:04,430 great benefits, and it's simple to work in to your 140 00:10:04,430 --> 00:10:06,740 daily routine and give yourself a few little 141 00:10:06,740 --> 00:10:11,600 movement breaks with the Spine Six. Give it a try 142 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:15,030 move often, and feel better.