Daily Maestroism
DM #56
Monday, July 18th, 2016
DM #56: The fact that the human spinal column is made up of 24 moveable vertebrae is a direct indication that our spine should in fact be able to move. What we should be focusing on is how much movement is occurring, at which areas of the spine, and when.
Under load, ie – deadlifting or squatting, we want the spine to remain in a fixed neutral position, stabilized by the surrounding musculature. But when performing a low threshold movement such as rolling or bending to touch your toes, you’d better believe we’re gonna get some spinal motion.
Taking it a step further and applying the joint-by-joint approach, certain regions of the spine tend to lose mobility and could thus benefit from some mobilization techniques, while others tend to lose stability and could benefit from some stabilization work to help the surrounding musculature better perform its duties. Without going into a whole lecture, the low back/lumbar spine is an area that typically does NOT need to be mobilized, but rather, stabilized, while the neighboring joints, the hips and thoracic spine receive the mobility work. Shirley Sahrmann was one of the first people to assert this fact, and it’s a concept that is directly supported by the joint-by-joint approach. Long story short, if you find yourself with that low back that constantly feels like it needs to be mobilized, start looking above and below.
Wait…didn’t I just say that the spine is supposed to be able to move? Absolutely. But once again, it’s all about the details. How, where, and when. All segments of the spinal column should have some degree of mobility, but what we’re looking for is controlled mobility. Conversely, we also don’t want to move like we have a stick up our rear ends. Hence, we also want controlled stability.
The take-home message is that truly functional movement patterns require a spine that is able to move, but does so in the correct amount, at the correct areas, and at the right time. A rigid spine is not a safe spine.
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