Two of the most common complaints I hear from people coming to class are, 

1) feeling stiff and rounded in the upper back and shoulder (and neck!) area.

2) lower back pain, either chronic, or on and off discomfort. 

These common issues are both related to how well your entire spine moves - in other words, how well and how regularly you move it!  

Can you move your spine like a rippling fluid wave?

Movements we do in yoga train optimal movement of all the joints along the entire spinal column and by extension, all the muscles that support and move it.

First, let’s look at how the spine is designed to move and common problems that come up. Understanding these fundamentals can transform what you get out of your yoga.

Your Spine 101 !

The spinal column consists of 24 articulating vertebral joints. Although each individual joint doesn’t have a lot of range of movement, each small amount of joint movement adds up to big, wave-like movement potential and each joint is crucial for moving the spine as a healthy, integrated whole.

The spine is naturally curved in an S shape, curving inwards at our lower back – (called lumbar lordosis), more curved outwards at our upper back, (thoracic kyphosis) and curving in again at our neck (cervical lordosis).

This S-curve design functions like a spring for shock absorption, so the body can absorb the forces of walking, running and jumping and other movement. 

It’s essential for a healthy spine to move in all directions, to elongate, rotate, side bend, flex and extend along its length as well as compress and sustain force. 

It can be helpful to think of the spine as having four main sections:

Cervical Spine - the neck, 7 vertebrae  (counted from 1 at the top down to 7. See diagram)

Thoracic Spine - the upper back, thoracic connects to the ribcage 12 vertebrae

Lumbar Spine - the lower back 5 vertebrae 

Sacrum and Coccyx (tailbone) - the back of the pelvis which moves more as a whole  (5 fused vertebrae and 4 fused vertebrae usually)

Each section of the spine has different degrees of range of motion in each direction - rotation, flexion, extension etc.

We are looking for the spine to have good capacity for both STABILITY and MOBILITY.

We need the spine to articulate, i.e. move at each joint in succession(to ripple), to be fluid and pliable for freedom of movement. Because the spine houses the nervous system, which thrives off movement, we need fluid movement for this signalling highway to work well. For this we need each individual joint to do its part.

(We also need it to be stable, to be able to hold firm and support the movement of the limbs. We will get into this useful idea of ‘proximal stability creates distal mobility’  in the core. )

Some issues with modern spines

Instead of having the possible range of movement at each vertebral joint, most of us have some stiffer areas that move less than they should, and other joints that end up taking on the work and moving more than they should. In particular, the thoracolumbar juncture in the mid-back (T12-L1) and the lumbar spine, (often at L4, 5-S1) can end up acting as ‘hinge’ points, doing a lot of the required daily movement, leading to more wear and tear, sometimes even pain. In other words, more mobile parts move alot and the stiff parts keep on being stiff!

Also, instead of a natural upper back (thoracic) curve, modern lifestyle habits can lead to more upper back rounding than ideal (called hyperkyphosis) causing uncomfortable stiffness. This is often avoidable and not just natural ageing! This lack of mobility in the upper back can result in the neck muscles overworking and poor shoulder movement, and in the lower back taking on more of the movement all the time, which can be a factor in lower back pain.  

A rounded upper back is caused by many factors including hunching a lot (yep, sitting a lot on phones, computers…), limited movement habits and restricted breathing patterns. More on that another time... 

Some people have a pattern of flatter curves in the thoracic and lumbar which can create different issues  - we are all different, but working on optimal spinal articulation is good for everyone. 

Part 2 of this Spine blog series looks at what specific kind of movements  we need to do for a strong and supple spine. To start with though, it can be really helpful to 

1. Develop your overall awareness (what I call feelability!) of your spinal column and 

2. Awareness and control of each of the sections.

In your yoga, when you practice feeling how your spine articulates as a whole unit, and you can feel each segment of the spine and move it in isolation, this awareness trains the brain to connect to each part better. This connection enables more control in your movements and more options in how you move, even without thinking about it. This is also so helpful for connecting to your deeper core muscular teamwork. My blogs on the core go into this.

Here is a video for starting to bring more awareness to your spine and feel some articulation

Here is a video to practice isolating and feeling movement in the sections of the spine, cervical, thoracic and lumbar, which might be revealing. Can you sense and control each section?

I'm interested to hear - was there much new information here? Anything to make you think about how you move differently? Did you find the spinal enquiries in the video helpful? You can share your findings below. Look out for part 2!