Stiff Spine? Try These on For Size! (Part IV)
Hey all, I wanted to you today starting where we left off with our series on loosening up your stiff spine. If you missed out, here are the last 3 parts:
In Part I and Part II, we talked about Type I and Type II arm driver progressions, respectively, and how we could progress/regress those exercises. In Part III, we add in an external load, in our case, a 10 lb body bar. For today, in Part IV, I wanted to cover how we can progress the movement even more by adding in a lower body dynamic component, in the form of the lunge matrix. Behold:
What Does It Do:
One of many different progressions, I like it because it challenges the hip/knee/ankle to absorb and control motion coming from the top , and is a great way to drive transverse/frontal plane motion to the lower body from the upper body.
What If This Is Too Difficult or Causes me Pain:
We can always regress the movement. Some regressions that will make this exercise more tolerable could be:
– start off in each lunge matrix position instead of lunging into the position. In other words, it would be a Lunge Matrix STANCE Body Bar Type I Motion, instead of going out of the lunge matrix.
– Reduce the motion of the twist
– Reduce the motion of the side bend
– Reduce the motion of the squat
As always, be mindful of the difference between working through painful and uncomfortable range of motion.
When Should I Do This Movement:
You can do this movement at the beginning of your workout as a part of your dynamic warm up to loosen up your stiff spine. You could try 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps each leg, each position. As each successive set and rep go by, try to get deeper into the motion, as long as it’s pain free.
That’s it for today folks, try it out and feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts and experience below.
Have a good one!
MG