This video is Part 6 of a YogaSynergy Spinal Movements Sequence taught by physiotherapist and Director of Yoga Synergy, Simon Borg-Olivier, which he teaches in person in courses throughout the world as well as Online in courses at RMIT University  and Online in courses at YogaSynergy called Yoga Fundamentals and Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga.

Video Transcript:

“Now I deepen the movements using hips and armpit muscles. Pushing the hips forward furthers the activation of the front of the spine. The opposite movement, spinal extension, here I use the shoulder blades pulling together, or retracting, to help open the chest and depressing the shoulder helps release the neck. By allowing my sitting bones to move slightly down and forward it prevents me from squashing the lower back and then I try and extend (bend backwards) from where I am stiff, where most people are stiff, is in the middle of the back and this stimulates the kidneys  (and also there is often stiffness around the L4-L5 junction).  Here a spinal extension movement followed with a breath into the abdomen allows me to relax the muscles on the side of the spine, often which go into spasm.

You can see a demonstration of the the entire sequence by clicking HERE

You can see Part 5 of the instructional videos of the sequence by clicking here

This video was one of a series filmed by David Samulenok of RMIT University for the course entitled Applied Eastern Anatomy.This is a low resolution version of video, higher resolution versions are available in the online courses.