Fixing Spinal Rotation: Part 2
Well hello everyone, and welcome back to Four Lights Wellness. We’re continuing our conversation about the importance of having proper spinal rotation, so if you haven’t read part 1, you can find that here before we get into this part 2.
In this article, I’m going to draw an analogy of the spine’s alignment and proper functional range of motion in rotation to what a car experiences with alignment. I know, it’s a guy analogy, but instead of getting too deep into vehicular anatomy and losing even myself, I’m going to keep things purely in the functional language of the body, and relate these imbalances to the overall cost of operating the body/car.
Proper Function
One of my key assessments for every client is to assess the range of motion for the thoracic spine in all movements. For this article, I’ll be focusing on the functional range of motion for rotation, which is somewhere between 35-50 degrees of rotation per side. If you don’t want to get fancy with tools and an assessment by a Chek Professional like me, simply stand and keep your hips pointed to the front, rotate your shoulders to the left and right. You should be able to get at least to a 45 degree angle at the shoulders and collar bones.
Most people are severely lacking in this range of motion, and are surprised to find that they rely on the lower spine and pelvis motions to compensate for the restrictions. Some people also run into the imbalance left to right, meaning one side rotates much farther than the other, leading to a unilateral imbalance causing pain on the more mobile side. Either way, these sorts of rotational dysfunctions can lead to: over pronation patterns at the ankle, knees that bow in or out when walking, over recruitment of the spinal extensors, dysfunctional obliques that turn into a waddling pattern when walking, too much movement at the shoulder which turns into rotator cuff issues, and even neck and jaw tension to pull the shoulders forward.
Do you need to max this range of motion out to be fully functional? Well, no. The first goal is to get balanced side to side. I find that one of the biggest reasons people have pain caused by this dysfunction is the simple fact that one side is moving more than the other, leading to a wear and tear that is unilateral, and eventually things like arthritis and stenosis occur. We’ve also got to understand that one of the reasons we lose this range is due to lifestyle. If we don’t ask the body to rotate much because our only motions are basic walking and sitting/standing in chairs, we don’t really need full rotation to move.
But, while our movements don’t require full rotation, there’s many things inside the body that do!
The Cost of Car Ownership
If you’ve ever taken your car into the shop, at some point you’ve heard the salesman or mechanic mention the alignment. Think of the alignment as how well the car goes where you want it to when you tell it to. The worse the alignment is, the more control you have to exert over the vehicle, and the more compensations are happening, most likely without your awareness.
For example, tires these days last about 50,000 miles, and cost roughly $800 to replace the set. If we take national averages, this means it roughly costs $200/year to have tires on your car. Now, if the alignment is off even a tiny bit, our tire wear and tear can easily increase by 25%, meaning your yearly cost of tires goes from $200 now to $250. If we ignore the problem more, it can go up as high as 40%, or $280/year.
And this misalignment isn’t just the tires. If we factor in fuel efficiency, suspension repairs, and potential engine rattling wear and tear, this small issue of misalignment that would have cost roughly $150 per year is now potentially costing $850+ in added issues.
Let’s get back to the body. Spinal rotation is the alignment of the car. The tires would be all the joints of the body, the suspension would be the discs of each joint, and the fuel efficiency would be how much effort the body and the brain must put into the muscles to make movement fluid. This isn’t even factoring in the organs themselves, and their need to be pumped mechanically by movement which is rotation based.
All that to say this: even a loss of 5 degrees of rotation will dramatically increase the wear and tear on your body each and every day. And just like the car, the longer the issue goes, the more expensive this gets to treat! The good news is that your body isn’t a car. It can heal itself faster than it is wearing down if we’re in proper alignment and function. But you’ve got to take the time and effort to be aware of your function, and that starts with rotation.
What Can You Do?
Rotation isn’t only about stretching, although that is a key component. The part I want to focus on for the rest of this article is the integration component of rotating. The brain must get better at sending the signal in the first place, then the body has to learn how to hear that signal. I’ve found the Feldenkrais Shoulder Spine Integrator to be one of the best ways to work this mind and body connection.
What we need for this is something that keeps the cervical spine in line with the rest of the spine. I find a 4 inch foam roller to be perfect for most people, but a pillow or pair of yoga blocks can work well too. Simply lie on one side, with the head on the roller, making sure to keep the head and shoulders far enough back to keep the thoracic spine neutral, and not flexed forward. Next, we’re going to bend the knees up in line with the hips at 90 degrees, and bend the knees to 90 as well. This is critical, because if the lumbar spine is left neutral, the rotation will come from there instead of isolating it to the thoracic spine.
The exercise is to take the top hand and place it on the opposite side of the forehead to place the shoulder blade in an optimal position for spinal rotation. Inflate the lungs to stretch the rib cage and diaphragm, then with an exhale, turn the head to rotate the upper body and spine as far as you can from only the thoracic spine. The breathing here is critical, as the stretch reflex of the breathing muscles helps to facilitate the spine’s rotation. Feel free to hold the end position for a breath or two, but there are way better stretches for the T-spine than this. We’re looking for reps with this instead.
Our aim is to eventually rotate to about 50 degrees with minimal effort. I find that if we work on this daily for 8-12 reps per side, most people will need to progress after only a week or two. For those progressions, check out the companion YouTube video.
But the key is to not just go through the motions with this. Instead, I encourage everyone to be mindful of how they feel after. What has changed in the body as it is adapting to an increase in rotational function? The most common answers from my clients: feeling more grounded in the feet and balanced left to right, less brain fog (I can write a whole article on why, if people are interested), less neck and jaw tension, breathing is easier, and even one person told me they felt less trapped in their own body.
Remember, Rotation is Systemic
When it comes to the mind and body connection, one thing that I even forget sometimes is how motion is lotion not only to the joints, but the internal organs. Let’s take for example the topic of hydration. We do need to make sure we’re drinking enough water throughout our days, but it’s surprising for most of my clients to learn that without proper rotation, our absorption rate of water is reduced. This can leave us with that feeling of water sloshing around our gut after drinking a lot of water.
Lots of organs absorb water, but the biggest part that suffers from a lack of rotation is called the transversus colon. At this stage of digestion, any remaining water left in our fecal matter is reabsorbed, and is a key organ for pH regulation. And guess what? When we rotate well, that organ is massaged, helping its overall mobility (organ motility), especially when combined with deep diaphragmatic breathing (also helped or hindered with rotation of the spine and ribs!).
From pressure regulation, to digestive health, to left/right brain communication, to even the immune system, spinal rotation really is a critical function of the body to restore for overall health and aging gracefully. Try the above self assessment to figure out your range of motion, and then work the Feldenkrais Shoulder Spine Integrator out daily for a few weeks, and see how dramatically your body can transform.
That’s it for this article. Stay tuned for Part 3 next week where I start to cover more advanced integration techniques, and then again for Part 4 where we talk a lot about conditioning rotation with strength exercises. I hope this information is very helpful to you all, and as always, have a happy and healthy rest of your day!
If you liked this, check out my course at Four Lights Wellness, where I cover both physical and mental aspects of wellness: Healing (e)Motions: Trauma Release Exercises for People with Stress offers targeted physiological exercises aimed at reducing stress and mental health dysfunctions that can contribute to physical pain.