lesson #4:
spinal
jacks
Welcome to Lesson #4 of Breathe Deeper [Level 1].
The first 3 lessons were about changing the shape of your torso. Aka, what muscles do I need to activate to take a deep breath?
Answer: your diaphragm, external intercostals, and accessory muscles (chest, shoulders, neck and back). When these muscles contract, your torso gets bigger. When your torso gets bigger, air gets pulled in. Easy.
The next 4 lessons take things further. Much further.
Let me explain.
Breathing is about volume, right? For example, inhaling increases your lungs’ volume while exhaling decreases your lungs’ volume.
But what is volume?
You’ll remember from geometry class that volume = length * width * height.1
Therefore, breathing deeper — aka volume expansion — requires that you increase the length, width, and height of your entire body.
You read that right: your entire body. Not just your torso.
Chin, forehead, temples, sinuses, biceps, hands, groin, knees, toes, liver, gallbladder.
To take the deepest possible breath (and thereby releasing the most amount of your tension) the entire body must expand!
All three dimensions are important here, too. For instance, even if the width of your body is 1,205,375 meters wide, if your length is 0 meters, your volume will also be zero.
This particular lesson is about increasing the height of your body. The next two will be about width and length.
To make things simple: we can say that the height of your body directly corresponds to your posture.
Little height = terrible posture.
Lots of height = great posture.
Let’s make things clearer. Imagine an inflatable tube man you see outside of car dealerships: when it has the most amount of air in it, it is completely upright. When it doesn’t have much air, it’s bent at the waist. When it has no air at all, it is completely flat.
The same thing is true in your body: when you’re completely filled with breath, your spine will be fully erect. And when you’re completely devoid of breath, your spine will be caved in on itself.
Or: when your breath is perfect, your posture will be perfect.
^^ Read that again!!
What people often don’t appreciate is that your spine depends on the alignment of your hips.
Look at these photo collages. Can you spot the difference between the two groups? Hint: look at their pelvic tilt.
Poor posture starts with what we call a “retroverted pelvis.”
Good posture starts with what we call an “anteverted pelvis.”
Putting it all together: if you want to get taller — thereby increasing your volume and breath, and consequently releasing your tension — you must focus on your hips.
Focus. On. Your. Hips.
‘Spinal Jacks’ does this.
Like a car jack that pumps up and up and up, when your hips tilt (antevert), your spine naturally straightens.
Try that now: inhale while anteverting your pelvis, and watch your spine and skull naturally rise up.
You’ll notice, however, that tilting alone isn’t enough. You’ll also need to simultaneously push upwards from your sitting bones, otherwise the spine won’t have anywhere to extend to, and your lower spine discs start getting compressed.
Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push. Tilt. Push.
Or, another way to remember it:
- Glass on the Ass
- Grow Like Grass
Glass on the Ass (Tilt). Grow Like Grass (Push). Glass on the Ass (Tilt). Grow Like Grass (Push). Glass on the Ass (Tilt). Grow Like Grass (Push).
Over and over and over until a shower of energy pours from the crown of your head.
This is a very important lesson so I highly recommend you practice. Check out the audios to perfect this technique.
Happy you’re here. Keep going. The concepts will continue building on one another. The payoff will be worthwhile. You got this.
– Ethan ॐ
P.S. If you want more, I highly, highly recommend the book ‘8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back’ by Esther Gokhale. It significantly improved my posture and, in-turn, relieved my back pain.
P.P.S. Are you slouching right now? Do you see how your pelvic tilt is the culprit?
1 We’re using the equation to measure volume in a rectangular prism to make a point here…obviously your torso cannot be perfectly measured with length * width * height! It just helps to simplify 🙂
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13
practice
audios
and much more...
- accordion breathing
- syringe breathing
- spherical breathing
- part the white sea
- coasting
- radiating
- sponge breathing
- scrubbing
and much more...
- accordion breathing
- syringe breathing
- spherical breathing
- part the white sea
- coasting
- radiating
- sponge breathing
- scrubbing
DSE | level 1
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