I spend a lot of time helping people move their spines better. A lot. People come to see me with cranky backs, malformations, tightness, disc problems, arthritis, you name it. So, since spines are literally central to our well-being, I though I’d open the kit and offer you some reliable tools for getting that back to feel better.
First, I’d like to offer you one concept to remember: YOUR SPINE MOVES THROUGH THREE PLANES. If you can move your backbone in these three different planes, generally good spinal mobility can be yours.
Plane # 1: The Sagittal Plane. The word sagittal comes from the latin word for arrow. When you shoot an arrow it goes forward through space. Sagittal movements are ones that go forward and backward, like walking, climbing, reaching up and down, bowing, bending forward and back. Imagine you had a glass wall on either side of you and the only way you could move was forward and back.
Now, can you curl forward a little, as though you were bending to tie your shoes or pull up your jeans? Or maybe drop your head forward gently as you sit, nodding off in front of the TV? Then look way up at that cardinal you hear singing in the cedar branches? Great! Can you stand tall and raise your arms up out front as though reaching for something on a high shelf? Nice – you’re moving your spine in the sagittal plane.
Plane #2: The Frontal Plane. Remember Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man? (Hint: He’s pictured above). Now those imaginary glass walls are in front of you and behind you. All you can do is side-step, do jumping jacks and cartwheels – Ha! – make snow angels, or maybe swim the breast stroke. Moving the spine in this plane means you do a wee side-bend. You can try it sitting or standing or even lying down. We don’t move this way very much as we age, and we can get very tight in between those ribs. Bonus: move this way and watch your breathing improve!
Plane # 3: The Transverse Plane: Aka twisting. We do this all the time. We cross our legs, we reach across the midline as we put put on an earring. We turn our heads when someone over there calls us (without turning the whole body), or we back up the car the old fashioned way by looking over our shoulders. We paddle the canoe or kayak. Maybe we even twist again like we did last summer. Sit up tall on a chair, put your hands on your waist and gently turn your whole upper body to the left, then gently to the right. Or stand and lazily, naturally swing your arms as you walk. Your spine is twisting just a little – moving in the transverse plane. Sweet.
Spinal health relies on our ability to move our backbone through these three planes, even just a bit, every day. Give it a whirl. Remember, as always: go slow, go small and stay away from pain.
Here’s a brief video clip of me moving my spine through all three planes – as you can see, no athleticism required!
