Our spinal health is at the core of wellbeing, and it is vital to maintain daily movement through all the vertebrae if we are wanting to maintain a pain free back. Spinal Rolls are an effective yet easy practice to achieve this and are easy to integrate into the fabric of your day. When practiced at the beginning of our day they activate a sense of new energy when the body is feeling stagnant or sleepy. This is a very good way to wake up.
Spinal Rolls:
- release muscular tension in the shoulders and spine
- regulate diaphragmatic breathing
- regulate the Nervous System
- establish a feeling of grounding
- encourage good posture
- maintain spinal health
- help us find core activation
Not recommended for people with existing neck or spinal conditions or those with very low blood sugar or glaucoma.
There are four main parts to this movement.
1. Releasing Down
Begin as if nodding to say YES to this moment. As you tuck the chin, feel into the back of the neck. As soon as you experience a gentle stretching sensation at C7, the largest lump at the base of the neck, bend the knees and soften the spine forwards. Allow the skull to be heavy and place your attention into each part of the spine bone by bone as you let go into a forward bend. IT IS VITAL TO KEEP THE KNEES BENDING. As you go down, the attention is placed along the backside of the body and the feeling may be quite skeletal.
2. Hanging Forward
The knees stay soft and as you continue to hang down for a short time this is a good place to find your feet spreading and giving weight into the earth. Allow the skull to remain heavy.
3. Building up
To come up, go down a little further by scooping your tail under and plugging the feet into the earth. With an outbreath begin to place your attention sequentially up from the inner heals through the inner legs as you unfurl and follow sensation along the front of the spine, about halfway there may be a natural urge to inhale and support the unfurling of the upper body up to the roof of the mouth. If you feel lightheaded or dizzy stop. The coming up can be done in phases so that you take a few breaths in each position on the way up – like a diver equalising at certain points as she rises to the surface.
4. Adding the arms
It can take a while to really track a sequence down the back and up through the front of the spine and you may notice parts of the pathways are missing or harder to sense. Once you have established a smoothness to the movement you may be able to sense into the more subtle sensations of the internal organs and diaphragmatic structures in the body.
Try tracking up from the arches of the feet to the pelvic floor, to the diaphragm and see how as the sequence comes to this point, the support of your lungs activates and invite you to lift the arms as you unfurl through the upper back, throat and head. Finish in Tadasana, standing pose, as the arms come back down to your side to establish a sense of centre.
Check in with how your standing position feels as a result of this practice.
Written by Sam Loe and published on Unfurling the Spine – Sam Loe Yoga, 02nd October 2016
