What Is Spinal Mobility?

Understanding how you move your body is key to getting stronger, staying injury free, and feeling more balanced, grounded, and, well, happy. Did you know that your spine can move in 7 directions but most of the time we’re only moving in 2 of these directions; forwards and backwards (flexion and extension).

So what are the 7 directions of movement?

Flexion

Forward folds round the spine and are used to bend down to grab things off the ground. We do a lot of flexion in our daily movement, especially if you sit at a computer all day long. A slouched posture or rounding of our shoulders is an indicator that we are flexing our spine too much in our daily lives.

Extension

Spinal extension is the  opposite of spinal flexion and a great antidote to that rounding of the shoulders. But, it’s important that we learn how to extend properly to maintain the overall health of our spine. The lumbar spine (lower back) and the cervical spine (neck) have more range of movement than the thoracic spine (middle back and upper shoulders) so in back bending positions, its common to see people bending backwards from their lower back which compresses this area, rather than making an arch of the whole spine (think of the shape of a rainbow, an even arch is what we want in backbends). You also extend your spine in daily life, think about liftng something down from a high shelf. The purpose of extending the spine is to create more space, not compress the vertebrae. We use spinal extension daily when doing things like grabbing something that’s behind us. Most people will fold forwards much more than they extend backwards so it’s important to balance this out. Spinal extension lengthens the muscles of the anterior chain (the front of the body) as well as often strengthening the muscles of the lower back which means it’s an important movement if you have lower back trouble (when done correctly).

Lateral (left and right)

In general we don’t side bend much in our lives.  Side bends simultaneously contract one side of your obliques while stretching the other side. Side bends  increase space in the ribcage, which is a wonderful feeling and can make it easier to take a deep breath.

Twisting

Rotation of the spine is used more often in our daily lives, but similar to extension can be done incorrectly and cause damage. It’s common to begin twists from the shoulders rather than further down the spine. When twisting, it’s important to ground one part of the spine before moving the rest. All of us need to rotate when doing things like driving, looking behind you etc  In these situations it’s really common to throw the neck around because it has more range of motion when ideally, we should be using more of a spinal rotation. Rotating the spine consistently and correctly helps us keep our range of motion healthy so that daily movement becomes easier.

Axial Extension

Meaning to lengthen. It’s similar to extension except the emphasis is on lengthening upwards rather than backward movement. The two are linked because to bend backwards, you should also lengthen your spine at the same time. This axial extension creates space in between the vertebrae and creates more space in the spine as a whole. If you’re sitting down slouching and then you straighten out and lengthen your spine, this would be axial extension. In back bending postures, rather than just leaning back, we should also lengthen upwards to create space to avoid compression. It’s a more subtle movement but it involves really important actions of the muscles from the pelvic floor upwards. In a yoga class when the teacher says to lengthen the spine, often this is what they are referring to. Equally if you’re like me and you say to your children ten times a day, “don’t slouch, sit up properly”, this is also axial extension.

Where can I learn more about spinal mobility?

We only get one spine so it’s really important to look after it. As we get older, we loose so much mobility in our backs and we become stiff and sore and sometimes end up living with daily back pain or discomfort.

I’ll be running a Gravity Yoga Masterclass on Saturday 19th June at FRESH. where you will learn simple techniques to improve the mobility of your whole body, including your spine. Look out for more details!

Any questions, you can give me a shout!

Lucy xx

@lucyhibben