Unwinding the Body with the Couch
Lesson 3 from: How to Prevent Aches and Repair the Body of a Career CreativeAaron Alexander
Unwinding the Body with the Couch
Lesson 3 from: How to Prevent Aches and Repair the Body of a Career CreativeAaron Alexander
Lesson Info
3. Unwinding the Body with the Couch
Lessons
Course Introduction
02:17 2Daily Exercises for Every Creative
13:41 3Unwinding the Body with the Couch
10:41 4Realigning for Photographers & Videographers
04:25 5Overcoming Back Pain
22:29 6Exercises for Hand Heavy Creatives
10:16 7Optimizing Your Home Office & Eye Health
13:16 8Travel Hacks
11:52Lesson Info
Unwinding the Body with the Couch
So this is the couch stretch. We're gonna cut to a clip from the Align Method program, which I would also highly recommend as an addendum to this, because a lot of the exercises in there pair perfectly with this program. So we have our lovely model, the beautiful Anna that's gonna perform the couch stretch for us here today. So here's what we're going to do. First thing is Anna's gonna bring her left knee fairly close to the couch and bring her foot up against the top of the couch bench, the seating area. And then next position from here is Anna's gonna bring her right foot forward. Perfect. So just this position in and of itself is fantastic as we're going through, and it's gonna start to feel a stretch through the quads. She's gonna feel a stretch through the hip flexors. And something that's quite important is to make sure that our ribs are staying tucked down towards our hips throughout this position. So if we're in this position and we're flaring our ribs open like that, it might ...
look like we're getting deeper into the stretch, but in fact, we're just blowing out our lumbar spine and putting a lot of stress in our lower back. So from this position, this is fantastic, Anna. Well executed. Next thing we're gonna think about is we're gonna start to integrate what's called a PNF stretch, or a contract relax stretch. Very simple, and you can implement this into any joint or connective tissue muscle throughout your whole entire body. So what you're gonna do, Anna, is you're going to kick your foot against the couch for five seconds with about 25% pressure. So five, four, three, two, one, zero, and then on an exhalation, relax, and go a little bit deeper into the stretch. Something that can be supportive as well is to throw a pillow underneath your knee here. We have a pretty comfy soft rug here. But in general, that would be probably supportive, especially if you're on like hardwood. We're gonna do this two more times. So kick kick, kick. Five, four, three, two, one, zero. And exhalation. (sighs) Get a little deeper into this stretch. Last time, beautiful model Anna. Five, four, three, two, one, (sighs) a little bit deeper into the stretch. So you can implement that contract, relax, or PNF stretch, pretty much same thing, into any joint throughout the body, any place you're feeling, tension, stress, things that sort. You can play with this little contract for about five seconds, 25% pressure. And then on an exhalation, relax, and more details like that are in the Align Method book. So you can get deeper into this concept and that is it. I hope this helps your hips. So we're gonna continue this journey of unwinding tension in the body as a whole, and also the unsightly patterns of forward head posture. What we're gonna do now is what's called active rest position. We're gonna have the beautiful Anna put her legs up on the couch. Gonna lay down on her back and bring a pillow underneath her head. And this position, and bring your tuchus all the way up to the side of the couch. Tuchus is the technical term for buns. And let's have you, that's actually perfect. So this couch height is pretty good for Anna because it's just creating a subtle traction for the sacrum and the sacroiliac joints, just creating a little lift in the pelvis. So this position in and of itself, fantastic. You could do a brief meditation in this position if you'd like. While you're doing that meditation, you could implement some of the techniques that we learned in the Align Method program, such as elongated exhalations. You could also relax your eyes, which we'll get into later in this program, and kind of space out, take in the whole room, bringing that breath into the lower ribs. So, Anna can bring your hands to side of your ribs. Pow, and just do a few breaths. (inhales and exhales) A few more breaths, keep going. (inhales and exhales) Emphasizing the exhalation. So this is gonna be a gorgeous way to downregulate the whole nervous system. Next thing we're gonna take one of these kettle bells, and we're going to use this as a massage tool. So oftentimes when we think of using kettle bells we're thinking of using them to swing them and do some type of strange workouts that we'll post on Instagram. What we're gonna do with this particular kettle bell is Anna is going to use it as a tool for myofascial release, a little self-massage to start to open up some of the connective tissue around her abdomen. So, and if you wanna hold the kettle bell so you can kind of choose how much pressure you allow to have on your abdomen. Be gentle with this. Less is more, kinda like working with the cervical spine. Your organs love pressure. They love manipulation and movement. But you don't need to overdo it. So from here, you can use the kettle bell as a tool just to find tension in the abdomen. So you can start off working right exactly what Anna's doing on her own. I've never shown her this exercise before, yet she's still able to kind of like on her own be like, ah, it would be good to put it exactly where I was about to suggest, which is right above the pelvis or this little bony protrusion here, the bone in the front. It's called the anterior superior iliac spine. Doesn't matter what it's called. But that bony protrusion drop the kettle bell right medial of that. So that's gonna get into the iliacus and the sous major muscles and some of the connected tissue that's kind of bound into those hip flexors. And so with this, it's kind of choose your own adventure. What you're looking for is you're looking for any areas of tension, any areas of rigidity, any areas of maybe like, almost like, it feels like a little sensitive. It feels too sensitive, back up. But just in that place where it feels like, oh, like there's something changing in here with my pressure and my breath. So find a few more spots, maybe three or four different spots. And if you find a place that feels like there's some tension, it's probably gonna feel good to breathe into it. And just keep on breathing into that area until you feel like it's gonna change about as much as it's gonna change. I call this in manual therapy of working with a client, I call this reaching a point of diminishing returns. Sometimes you'll find a spot and it's changing a lot. It feels like it's really like a deep, like juicy place to work with. And then suddenly you get to a point where it feels like, okay, I think it's changed as much as it's gonna change. So this is kind of getting into like manual therapy world, but working with yourself and understanding how to really practice with yourself. And so that is it. You can follow any little spot around the abdomen Use your breath as a feedback tool to breathe against or outward towards the kettle bell, and do that for a couple of minutes and just find any place of tension and just keep on breathing into it. The next thing, and last thing that we're gonna play with to start to unwind these patterns is what Anna is already doing, just laying down on the ground. But now we're gonna take the feet off of the couch and we're gonna lay down on the ground and do a little spinal twist. So we're gonna pull this pillow back, ba-boom, and she can actually keep, bam, nice, little leg press, love that. Love a leg press, spontaneous leg press. And then we're going to, oh, move this mofo of a kettlebell over yonder. And so from this position, one, when you are laying on the ground, for most people it would be in their favor to put a pillow or something underneath the knees. That takes the lower back out of excessive extension. So oftentimes people have back pain and things of the sort, tension in the back. This is a beautiful way to start to decompress the spine. From here, what we're going to do is we're gonna bring the knees up even more. Bam. And then Anna's going to shift her pelvis about one inch over to the left. Actually lift up and shift. Pow, like that. Good, and now from here she's gonna allow her legs to ♪ drop to the right ♪ It's nice to sing as you drop to the right. Big advocate for that. And then she's gonna subtly turn her head over to the izquierda direction. That is a Spanglish for left. And then she's gonna reach through the fingertips. Bam. She can play with reach in this arm as well. Get a little crucifix action here. And you're going to breathe into the side of the ribs. If you've got a buddy with you, they could even add a little woo! Yeah. Yep. Yep. And then just breathe into the side of the ribs. Breathe in the hips. Hallelujah. As you're doing it, you can take a deep breath in and then explanation say, "Hallelujah!" Do it. No. Okay. (laughs) (Anna laughing) That's good. Then we're gonna switch sides. Pop those, yep, shift the hips over. Over yonder. Ba-boom. Get a little snap, crackle, pop. I just got some pop action. So a big thing we're doing here is we're trying to open up some space around the thoracic spine, which are these middle 12 vertebra. And we're starting to really feel a connection, elongation, through the side of the hip, all this like IT, glute medias minimus stuff, up into QL, up into intercostals, up in the lats, up into the arm, out in the hand, feeling that connection through that whole body. And it just feels good. We spend so much time sitting in chairs, so much time standing in place, just laying down on the ground and kind of going through whatever range of motion feels good for you is one of the best things you can possibly do for your body. It's completely free. It's completely available. You just need space in your home to do so. So if your home's totally claustrophobic it's just jammed up with furniture, there's no place to do anything like this, then you'll probably never do anything like this. So create a space to be able to move around like this, and your body will thank you for it. So that is it for exercises that are supportive for unwinding the unsightly patterns of forward head posture. Let's move on to the next section. (claps) Thank you guys.