Fun Shoulder Love

One thing that most of us don’t do enough of is move.

And if we do move, we don’t necessarily move those parts that are most effected by our modern, device using lifestyles… like our shoulders.

Why is movement important?

Many of the functions of our bodies depend on movement, some directly like the flow of lymph, which only moves when we move, and some indirectly like the flow of nutrients to cells which slows down in areas where the interstitial fluid becomes viscous… due to lack of movement.

*(If you want to get geeky, there’s an excerpt below from Anatomy Trains on how movement, nutrition, strain, etc. effect the facia, intercellular fluids and cellular nutrition.)

Basically, if we’re not moving all parts of our bodies regularly our bodies aren’t functioning optimally. The parts that aren’t moved will get tight, weak, constricted, congested and clogged.
And thus undernourished.
Not a pretty picture.

On the other hand, our bodies love to move! It feels great to stretch and wiggle and flex and sigh.

That great feeling is our bodies saying, “Thank you! I loved that!”

Movement helps the body open, decongest, strengthen and flow.
And nourish itself optimally.
Along with eating and watering (!!), resting, sleeping and exercising (to get all systems flowing), movement is crucial to your cellular wellbeing.

One area I don’t move and stretch as much as I could is my upper torso. I spend a lot of time on my computer with my shoulders slightly hunched forward, like right now as I write, and not as much time moving, opening and stretching.

If you feel the same, I encourage you to take a moment right now and stretch out wide, roll your shoulders, head and neck and let yourself sigh with pleasure.
I just did, and oh, is my body happier!

I’ve included in the video above an exercise I learned recently for moving the shoulders in their full range of motion. I really enjoyed playing with it because my body understood immediately though my brain was lost. I was moving my body in a new way, one that my mind didn’t follow, so was in kid-like wonder… “This is great! Can I do this with my other arm, too? Wait! What am I doing exactly?! I don’t know! How fun! Can I do both arms at once? How about in reverse?! Whee!”

Or if you’d rather do some more traditional stretches for upper torso, I highly recommend Andrey Lappa’s passive shoulder asanas. They are some of the most effective upper body stretches I’ve ever done.
Amazing constructions. Beautiful yoga.
Know that they are intense. Definitely warm-up well first!

Or just move instinctively! Right where you are! It’s easy to just stretch any way you like. And breathe. One of the best thing we can do is simply incorporate a bit of movement everyday for those parts that aren’t getting enough attention.
Check-in… where ever you feel tight, restricted and blah, get your wiggle on.

Your body will thank you.

Hope that Helps and Happy Moving!,
Elena

*Excerpt below from Anatomy Trains by Thomas W. Myers
(Bolding and items in [brackets] are mine. -EF):

“How easily the nutrients make it to the target cells is determined by:
1. the density of the fibrous matrix [the facia];
2. the viscosity of the ground substance [intercellular fluid].
If the fibers are too dense, or the ground substance too dehydrated and viscous, then these cells will be less thoroughly fed and watered. It is one basic intention of manual and movement interventions – quite aside from the educational value they may have – to open both of these elements to allow free flow of nutrients to, and waste products from, these cells. The condition of the fibers and ground substance is of course partially determined by genetic and nutritional factors, as well as exercise, but local areas can be subject to ‘clogging’ through either of these two mechanisms when excess strain, trauma, or insufficient movement has allowed such clogging to occur. Once the clog is dispersed, by what-ever means, the free flow of chemistry to and from the cells allows the cell to stop functioning on metabolism-only ‘survival’ mode to resume its specialized ‘social’ function, be that contraction, secretion, or conduction.
‘There is but one disease,’ says Paracelsus, ‘and its name is congestion.’ “

Broken to Joy Series: Playing with Posture

(video) Posture can be an easy way to check in with yourself and begin to shift habits.

Notice what you do with your body when you are feeling strong emotions like anger, fear, sadness, etc versus when you are joyful, excited, happy and see physically what the differences are… Then start to notice how you hold yourself in general, even when you are not feeling any emotion very strongly.

Many of us hold ourselves in habitual postures of protection for instance, rounding our shoulders and shielding our chest.

What ever you do, as you notice you can begin to play with those postural habits, gently adjusting the body by taking a deep breath in allowing that to expand, straighten, relax or otherwise adjust to upright alignment.

This becomes a fun game.
How am I sitting, standing, lying right now? What will happen if I breathe into this?

What are your posture habits? What do you do to play with them?

Enjoy,
Elena
theJoyLab.net

Posture Perfect – 4 Exercices for Improving your Posture

Playing with Posture in France

Playing with Posture in France

Want to improve your posture?
Here are a few things I’ve done over the past year that have helped a lot. I like to play with these while running, so these are especially fun to do while moving.

Spinal Awareness – (From the) Bottom Up!

Great for awareness of the entire spine, floor to ceiling.
  1. Contract the anus a few times so that you are really awa˝re of the area around the low spine (just above the anus is the coccyx, then the sacrum and then the rest of the spine rises up into the neck and skull).
  2. Then starting from the bottom, inhale and imagine that the air you are inhaling is gently moving up your spine and that it expands and lifts your spine as it moves up. Invite your spine to float up, as if you were lighter than air, following the movement of air and spine with your awareness, upwards from coccyx to crown. Notice how the spine gently lifts and unfolds and the body opens.
  3. Do this a few times, following the movement, noticing the movement in the body each time.d. Now notice as much of the spinal area as you can, coccyx to crown (bone, muscle, skin, etc).
  4. Use this exercise to help you relax your spine and back and to be more aware of them and their position. This exercise is also a great way to start focusing on your spine before you do any of the other exercises below.

Spinal Tube

This exercise is great for aligning the whole spine.
  1. This is super simple. Imagine that your spine is a tube. As you inhale, imagine that your breath is gently flowing down your spine, and that the whole tube is lengthening, flowing down, relaxing, expanding and opening as the air floods through.
  2. Let the breath smooth out any kinks in the tube, and allow the back to relax, loosening all of the back muscles as it goes. This is an air massage. It feels great!
  3. Do this for a few breaths or until you feel un-kinked.
  4. This is great to do while moving, especially exercising, and if you do it while running, for instance, you can play with improving your gait at the same time (better posture = easier stride).

Spinal Tube with Navel Hold

This one is great for abdominal and low back awareness. Also, strengthens the abdominals. This one is for those of you that like challenges.
  1. Once you get good at the above practice, add a gentle drawing in (pulling in) of the navel towards the spine. Keep breathing and relaxing at the same time!
  2. This practice is actually a bit tricky, because you want to relax the back as much as possible and at the same time keep the abdomen contracted. The dichotomy creates an interesting challenge for the mind and the body.
  3. Again, be gentle. The point here is not force. The point is awareness, so notice your body and how it reacts to this interplay of relaxation and gentle contraction.

Hip Space

This exercise allows more room between the thighs for the pelvis to move, so that great pelvic alignment is easy to find.
  1. Stand comfortably, feet hip width apart.
  2. Staying upright (without leaning the upper body forward), bend your knees and lower your body straight down towards the ground a few inches (a very shallow squat)
  3. Soften your whole pelvic area, especially your buttock and hip muscles by imagining that you are made of melting butter!
  4. Standing like this, your pelvis has more room to move. Loosen it up a bit and enjoy this increased freedom by rocking the base of your pelvis gently back and forth, moving your pubic bone and coccyx (the bony mound at the bottom front of your pelvis above your genitals and in back, the seat bones at the base of your spine).
  5. Drop your sit bone, your coccyx bone at the bottom of your spine, down towards the ground, straightening your low back and letting your your pelvic bone move forward as your spine straightens.
  6. Keeping your pelvis in this new position slowly and gently straighten your knees feeling what a straighter lower back feels like.
  7. Feel which parts of your back, buttocks, hips, thighs, knees, etc feel tight or restricted in this position. If you feel fairly comfortable, take a few steps, again feeling for restrictions.
  8. If you feel really comfortable walk around feeling into this position, reminding your body what this feels like, and how to move in this position. Let this be gentle, fluid and dynamic. The point here is not to force anything. The point is to gain awareness, to notice the body.

Enjoy!,

Elena

What exercises do you do that improve your posture?