Episode 7: Fundamental Movement Skills
In today's episode I talk about 3 more movement skills that need to be included in building a solid foundation for your mind & body.
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Show Notes:
Episode Summary: In this episode, Cari Vann discusses three fundamental movement skills in therapeutic pilates, which are essential for building a strong foundation for the body. The skills covered are upper spinal flexion, spinal twisting, and spinal articulation. Cari breaks down each movement, providing insights, tips, and common mistakes to avoid. The episode is packed with practical advice to help listeners safely practice and master these skills.
Show Notes:
Upper Spinal Flexion
Engages rectus abdominal muscles (six-pack muscles)
Important to connect to breath and use deeper muscles (transverse abdominal muscles)
Avoid cheating with neck and shoulders
Use a towel under the head for support and proper form
Focus on quality over quantity: deep focus, concentration, using center, breath, and scoop
Spinal Twisting
Encourages flexibility in the spine, hips, pelvis, and shoulder girdle
Knee sway exercise is effective for developing spinal twisting
Common mistakes: not activating scoop (center) and forgetting to coordinate breath
Start small, gradually increase range of motion
Strengthen and stretch the center (abdominal muscles), increase spinal range of motion
Spinal Articulation
Learning to move one vertebrae at a time for full body control and stabilization
Develops awareness between abdominals and spine
Requires ultimate muscle control, promotes good motor control
Wall bridge exercise: a great starting point for teaching spinal articulation
Progress to larger movements once control is established
Key Takeaways:
Upper spinal flexion requires proper form and breathwork to avoid injury and maximize benefits
Spinal twisting enhances overall flexibility and can be improved through the knee sway exercise
Spinal articulation, practiced through the wall bridge, promotes full body control and stabilization
Using the scoop (center), breath, and proper form are essential for effectively practicing these movements
Transcript:
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Better Than a Pill. I'm Cari Vann, and I'm so grateful and excited to be here again to share with you today. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about three more important fundamental movement skills that are part of building a foundation for your body in the form of a therapeutic pilates regimen. So today we're going to be breaking down upper spinal flexion, spinal twisting, and spinal articulation in a little more detail.
Let's start with upper spinal flexion. In this movement, you are actually flexing the spine and engaging the muscles that do that, which are the rectus abdominal muscles, aka. six pack muscles. They're the most exterior part of the abdominal muscles that you can usually see. They form the shape of a six pack. You can see that when they're really defined. I think you know what I'm talking about. Now, this being said, it's also very important to connect to your breath and your scoop and use the deeper muscles, your transverse abdominal muscles, when doing this movement. It's so easy to cheat with this movement. And primarily we want to cheat with our neck and our shoulders while doing upper spinal flexion.
This is especially true when you're weak in your center, and this can lead to injury. And this is one reason why I recommend using a towel underneath the bottom of your head, the base of your skull, bringing your elbows in, shoulders down. When you're lifting up your head and you begin to perform upper spinal flexion, say you're lying on a mat, and you're going to do this on your back. This is how you want to start. This teaches you how to do it properly, how not to pull on the neck, and as well as how to elongate the spine. I actually call this a towel curl up, and it's safe, and it also helps prevent neck injury.
So when you're curling up, you're supporting your head with the towel. You're gazing down, and you want to exhale. You want to go as high as you can, but not higher than the bottom of your shoulder blades as you're doing the movement. You also want to learn to separate the movement by feeling the weight of the shoulder blades as it is separate from the weight of the head. And this is important, otherwise they tend to stay stuck as one unit. And most people are already really tight in holding tension in these areas. So this movement is not about repetition, as in the case of a sit up, for example. Less is better than more. And as with most of the fundamental skills, it's about focus and concentration, going deep, using your center, using your breath, using your scoop.
Now let's talk a little bit about spinal twisting. This is a movement that encourages flexibility, not just within your spine, but also your hips, your pelvis, your shoulder girdle, and the knee sway is one of the most effective exercises for developing spinal twisting. Two of the biggest mistakes people make when doing the movement called the knee sway is not activating your scoop, aka center, and forgetting to coordinate your breath. The knee sway can be done while lying on your back and your knees are bent. And basically, as you inhale your knees are together, you sway your knees to one side and you look in the opposite direction. And then when you return to center, you're going to use a deep exhale and you're going to use your center. You're going to have more control.
I always recommend starting off small and swaying to the point that feels comfortable, where you don't have any strain. And then your range of motion can gradually increase over time and at whatever feels best for your body over time. So while doing the knee sway, you may feel a stretch in the waist, hips, outer thighs, low back, or even the deep belly area. It is excellent for strengthening and stretching your center or abdominal muscles and increasing spinal range of motion. So remember to use your breath, use your scoop to get the most optimal control while doing this movement, okay?
And then finally, we have spinal articulation. This is the concept of learning to move one vertebrae at a time. It's important in creating full body control and stabilization. It develops an awareness between the abdominals and the spine and helps to keep the spine more stable. Effective spinal articulation requires ultimate muscle control, especially from the muscles deep and close to the spine. You can think of it as microscopic muscle control, which in turn promotes good motor control.
Now, the best way to start getting spinal articulation into your body is with an exercise I call the wall bridge. This helps to gain more control in connection between the heels, the backline muscles of the body, the glutes. It's great for the knees, the hips, and the back. So when you're lying on your back, you're going to lift your feet up. You're going to anchor them about 90 degrees against a wall, a door, a piece of sturdy furniture, and you're going to use your center. You're going to do your pelvic tilt that we already have learned. And then you're going to feel each vertebrae leaving the mat with your breathing, obviously. And they're going to be breathing, and you're going to feel each vertebrae imprinting back down into the mat.
The amount of spinal movement will be small because we're working on control to start with, and this allows for greater control before progressing into a full blown out bridge. And I feel that this is just a really great way to start. It just sets your body up for more control and feeling. Like I said, heel connection, glute connection as well. And it's just really good for knees, hips, and back like I had already specified. So the wall bridge is how I recommend teaching spinal articulation to start before progressing to a larger movement.
Now, just to recap, today we talked about upper spinal flexion and the importance of the scoop, of course, in all these movements, including, secondly, spinal twisting, using the knee sway, and last but not least, spinal articulation starting off being taught using a wall bridge movement on a wall door or place to anchor your feet.
I hope you all enjoyed this episode and found it helpful. Remember, we do new episodes every week on Wednesday, and I look forward to having you join me then.
