SPINAL ROTATION MATTERS

Spinal rotation matters……..

The average axial rotation of your lumbar spine is a mere 5°, an average of 1° per vertebrate section, whereas your thoracic spine has 35°, an average of 3° per vertebrate section, your cervical spine has 50°, an average of 7° per vertebrate section. Who knew eh?

So based on that information – you will get more rotation out of your neck and your upper back however your lower back will not give you much at all.

Add in the complexity of the spine not being an isolated structure and that we have a rib attached to each vertebrae, we have our pelvis at the base of our spine and shoulder girdle at the top. Inside our ribs we have our lungs and heart which requires the thoracic to be a fully dynamic and breathable structure. So movement of these structures are not simply a case of pull one thing and the other thing moves and nor is it a case that the movable parts are as effective on their own.

We need healthy rotational movement of the spine though in order to run, move directions, play rotational sports (any paddlers reading this?) and of course walk and so it can be useful to look at the mechanics behind this movement.

1. Given that most of the thoracic is filled with lungs, it stands to reason that will also be filled mostly with air so it is worth thinking about how you breath when you ask your spine to rotate. Imagine if you blew up a balloon and then tried to twist, now imagine the same balloon with less air in it – which of the two will be more malleable? Of course the one with less air, so it makes sense when moving into any spinal rotation of any kind that you do so on an exhale. If you rotate when the lungs are full of air the chances are you will be forcing the spine to move rather than allowing it to move. The ribs need to be able to expand and contract depending on which way you are asking your spine to rotate.

2. Consider also that the shoulders are connected to the thoracic via the gleno-humeral joint and scapula so understanding the health of our shoulders has to be intrinsically linked to the healthy movement of our thoracic. If healthy movement can be defined as a little bit of movement from lots of places and if we are inclined to breathe through our upper traps and upper chest (as so often seen in kyphosis), then we will inhibit the movement of the ribcage and so during rotation it is possible that too much movement will come from too few places ie the shoulders.

3. If the lumbar spine lacks the ability to rotate much at all, then the pelvis has to be taken into consideration. If we are inclined to wrench the body into a deep twist, whilst it may look like there is a lot of rotation, the reality will be that the pelvis has become unstable and the shoulder girdle is doing more work than necessary. Again an example of unhealthy movement.

4. Lastly – I have heard so many different yoga cues around twists and the biggest one being “squeeze the organs to aid digestion and detoxification” which considering that the bulk of these organs are based in the lumbar area and considering this part of the spine allows for very little rotational movement, I am really not entirely sure if that is possible. We can probably compress our organs through the simple act of breathing and also through forward folds, we can definitely put pressure onto our lungs through rotation of the thoracic but beyond that I am not sure. So if you get invited to a detox yoga class and get informed that you will be doing lots of twists, have a think about it and question the reality of that, I am not saying don’t do it, axial rotation is good for the spine so long as done in a way that considers all the mechanics of breathing and movement.

p.s. I am not an anatomy expect – I am feeling my way through this as I find it fascinating and it informs my practice. I would love to hear what you think – try the twists below – see how it feels. Try on the inhale, try on the exhale – explore other twists such as the standing postures triangle and revolved triangle. Notice what helps and pay attention to the felt experience of the breath.

Always remember the enquiry “how does this feel if I do this, how does it feel if I do that”

Peace

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