HI, Just wondering,doing the exercise where we hold weight and lower behind the head while lowering a leg to the floor, and other such core work, do we compress the spine to the floor or maintaing the curve (i.e lower back a couple inches above the floor) with the abs engaged? Thanx!
Imprinted vs.Neutral Spine for ab work in BG?
- Thread starter rnyogamom
- Start date
Gibbee
Cathlete
If you arch the back excessive in some of the more straining positions (legs fully extended above the floor or positions that can call on the hip flexors excessively), you can hurt your lower back. So, should the back be imprinted into the foor or slightly arched in a neutral, controlled position? Keli Roberts talks about the neutral position in her Abs & More. You also hear about it in Stott Pilates. But when is neutral too arched? Is an imprinted back more likely to call on the transverse, which is sometimes hard to train?
kathryn
Cathlete
>I've never heard of neutral v.s. imprinted spine. What is it
>and why does it matter? Wouldn't your back do what it does
>naturally?
Neutral is keeping the natural lordotic curve of the spine(which is what more instructors seem to be cuing these days). Imprinted is pressing the lower back into the floor.
What your back does 'naturally' is not necessarily good, if it leads to an excessive arch (beyond the natural one...this is easy to do in moves where you are lying flat and holding the feet off the ground, if you lower the feet too far for your current strength level).
>and why does it matter? Wouldn't your back do what it does
>naturally?
Neutral is keeping the natural lordotic curve of the spine(which is what more instructors seem to be cuing these days). Imprinted is pressing the lower back into the floor.
What your back does 'naturally' is not necessarily good, if it leads to an excessive arch (beyond the natural one...this is easy to do in moves where you are lying flat and holding the feet off the ground, if you lower the feet too far for your current strength level).