jasonB
03-13-2005, 03:52 PM
Hey everybody, I've been reading the forum regularly but haven't posted in a while (as usual), so I thought I'd give a little update on some progress I've made.
My biggest problem so far has been the limited mobility of my upper spine. I've been trying to address this for quite a while now. I had gotten into back bridges, but these didn't seem to help much. In fact, they seemed to make things worse, as the range of motion my upper back should've been contributing was being provided by over-bending in my lower back. So recently I backed off of those bridges, and started working on bridge-circles while standing. I really concentrated on keeping my lower back fairly neutral while working the upper spine. I also did the same sort of thing with shoulder bridges on the ground. Finally, my upper back has started to regain some mobility, and I'm learning to use my whole spine instead of over-stressing and "hinging" on the low back.
This extra freedom of movement opened up for me a new possibility, the reverse-spinal-rock things where you roll on the front of your torso. I call them "fish flops," because that's the image that came to mind when I first saw them on the Grappler's Toolbox tape. I'd always experienced a lot of apprehension with these and hadn't been able to do them. Now, though I use my hands as 'training wheels,' I'm able to try them out.
I wanted to try the movement where you "fish flop," continue over the shoulder and move into a forward roll. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the transition. Part of the problem, I think, is remaining limitations in my range of motion, which I continue to work on. The other part I think is a weak core. I'm not able to draw my spine back forward and bring my legs in. I had the same problem with neck rolls, I wasn't able to draw the legs up.
I'd been working on slow spinal rocks to build some core strength for the last few months, and now I'm finding that with effort I'm able to lay on my stomach and draw the legs up while coming up on one shoulder (a la the neck roll). So my core strength seems to be coming along as well, and I continue to work this movement.
Sometimes it seems like progress comes slowly, that even though I learned to move in ways I couldn't before (bridging, threaded bridging), I didn't feel that much better - I still had a stiff neck and shoulders, etc. But like Scott wrote about recently in "Baby Steps are FAST," when I stopped trying to make progress quickly, and went back to really engage smaller and more subtle movements like simple standing torso movements and easy shoulder bridges and spinal rocks, some things started coming together. So things are looking positive with my movement work right now.
Jason
My biggest problem so far has been the limited mobility of my upper spine. I've been trying to address this for quite a while now. I had gotten into back bridges, but these didn't seem to help much. In fact, they seemed to make things worse, as the range of motion my upper back should've been contributing was being provided by over-bending in my lower back. So recently I backed off of those bridges, and started working on bridge-circles while standing. I really concentrated on keeping my lower back fairly neutral while working the upper spine. I also did the same sort of thing with shoulder bridges on the ground. Finally, my upper back has started to regain some mobility, and I'm learning to use my whole spine instead of over-stressing and "hinging" on the low back.
This extra freedom of movement opened up for me a new possibility, the reverse-spinal-rock things where you roll on the front of your torso. I call them "fish flops," because that's the image that came to mind when I first saw them on the Grappler's Toolbox tape. I'd always experienced a lot of apprehension with these and hadn't been able to do them. Now, though I use my hands as 'training wheels,' I'm able to try them out.
I wanted to try the movement where you "fish flop," continue over the shoulder and move into a forward roll. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the transition. Part of the problem, I think, is remaining limitations in my range of motion, which I continue to work on. The other part I think is a weak core. I'm not able to draw my spine back forward and bring my legs in. I had the same problem with neck rolls, I wasn't able to draw the legs up.
I'd been working on slow spinal rocks to build some core strength for the last few months, and now I'm finding that with effort I'm able to lay on my stomach and draw the legs up while coming up on one shoulder (a la the neck roll). So my core strength seems to be coming along as well, and I continue to work this movement.
Sometimes it seems like progress comes slowly, that even though I learned to move in ways I couldn't before (bridging, threaded bridging), I didn't feel that much better - I still had a stiff neck and shoulders, etc. But like Scott wrote about recently in "Baby Steps are FAST," when I stopped trying to make progress quickly, and went back to really engage smaller and more subtle movements like simple standing torso movements and easy shoulder bridges and spinal rocks, some things started coming together. So things are looking positive with my movement work right now.
Jason