Habitually holding, or sucking your stomach in is common in our culture. This chronic holding pattern creates limited mobility in the waistline and has a negative impact on the intra-abdominal pressure needed for healthy internal organs and a healthy pelvic floor.

Today’s exercise is going to help you assess how much true mobility you have in your waistline when it comes to rotating and twisting.

Most traditional spinal twists allow the ribs to move along with the pelvis when rotating. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but if your goal is to release your waist, you can't get there because you’re bypassing the muscles and tissue between your ribs and hips that need the release.

Discovering your true waistline mobility will help you create more mobility through your middle and will also help you with other exercises involving your waist where you might be unknowingly compensating.

Something I don’t mention in the video, but which you'll want to watch out for is keeping your rotating leg in line with your hip. It’s easy to let gravity pull your leg toward the floor and this is just another way to mask the reality of how far you are able to twist.

So, make sure and keep your leg in line with your hip. I couldn’t believe the difference this form point made in my body!

I hope you enjoy the Spinal Twist video and would love to hear about how it feels in your body. Just leave a comment below.

Happy rolling and twisting!

See you in the studio,

Sydney

P.S. – We’ve got some fun videos coming up involving a new hip flexor stretch, a scoliosis tip, co-activation of the multifidus, transverse abdominis and pelvic floor and more. If you’re not already on our email mailing list, make sure you sign up below!

[Today's exercise is based on the Restorative Exercise™ work of Katy Bowman. You can find out more on her site at www.katysays.com]