Today I had my spine worked on for the first time in a month, by far the longest stretch I’ve had in a long time! It’s funny, years ago I had no concept of how poor my spinal movement in my upper back was. Then I started having regular work done and the improvements were amazing. But eventually you adapt to the new found motion and somehow forget how crappy it used to be. This past week, I remembered :(. My spine sucked all week and although it never got painful other than some lingering headaches, even something as simple as reaching into the back seat of my car felt awful.

My partner in crime returned home for a few days so we headed to the golf course to do some work. First stop, soft tissue and some spinal adjustments. It wouldn’t surprise me if you heard the noise my upper back made! The key with doing this before a practice session is following it up with exercises that will reinforce and stabilize the new found motion.

Today I’m sharing with you one of my go to stretches (yes, I did a static stretch before I practiced 🙀unusual for me to do, but needed today).

I call it the Pretzel!

Other than trying to figure out how to get into this position, there is one very vital key that must happen in order to make this stretch effective.

Tuck your pelvis under (posterior)!!!

It sounds weird, but because this stretch address the hip flexor and the thoracic spine, it’s easy to use the lower back to gain motion. By tucking the pelvis under and engaging the core, it will increase the stretch on the hip flexor (bottom leg) and help release the upper back.

A few other keys:

-Let your eyes and head look in the direction you rotated the upper body.

-Take deep breathes and focus on relaxing.

-Start conservative with the position and gradually challenge the motion.

-Don’t be surprised if one side is tighter!

The end result of this work today……

I can turn!!!

Hope you all had a fun weekend!

-S