Over the past few weeks, I’ve been writing posts that may help you sense and release pockets (or ribbons?) of held tension. I’m sticking near to that theme today but instead of talking about how your sense of feeling can traverse your head, neck, and back, I’m going to describe some common patterns of holding. This might help you identify something new within yourself (or at least better name what you’ve been feeling for a while).
If you missed last week’s post, I think it’s worth a read.
18 Months Ago…
I wrote a piece titled Can You Do the Twist? back in Jan of 2024. Back then I was doing a series of blogs on how you could get yourself twisted up in knots. While those posts are all fine, I didn’t have the awesome-o drawing skillzzz that I have now. I’m hoping this will help me better illustrate an idea.
What Is A Spine Without A Spring?
If you’re like me or one of my students, you’ve complained about neck or back pain at some point in time. While there could be any number of causes for pain, one source can be a lock around a joint (or two) in the spine. When this happens, a portion of the healthy curve of the spine stops moving. This takes away the mushy/springy quality of the joints and turns the area into stiff steel.
Here’s a drawing of a ‘normal’ spine for reference.
Now let’s take a look at a neck that has lost the curvature…
In the photo above, you can see in the red dashed line in front of the spinal column that the degree of curvature in the neck has actually flipped. This is a tracing of an x-ray I found on the internet so you’re looking at a real life neck from the side.
With a neck like this, every step in walking will feel like a dull thudding pain travelling up the back. I see chatter of folks on Reddit complaining that they try to reverse these curves by resting with a towel under the neck. Logically, you would think this would work. But unfortunately, such a pressing on the middle neck will ignore:
Tension at the very top of the neck.
Tension at the top of the ribs.
A twist in the neck.
It’s this final point that I’d like you to consider today. Our spines are capable of a tremendous range of motion. If you think about a golf swing or a swimming stroke, the whole torso can spiral left or right. But we can also do things like look forward with our head and hip while twisting the ribs left and right.
For a large motion like the ones above, the spine/back should be fairly happy with your choices. But sometimes we can pick up an injury - be it repetitive strain or some type of traumatic/impact event - and the spine can get a pronounced twist in it. To illustrate my point, I’ve made a very basic drawing for you!
Can you see the green vertebra in the middle of the column? It has twisted off to the right. As a resulted, the pink muscle fibers are getting pulled out of alignment.
If you were to lie down with a towel under this neck (fig 3) but you thought you JUST had the straight neck in Fig 2 you would probably start getting frustrated that the spine wasn’t releasing.
Wait… Are You Telling Me to Put a Towel Under My Neck?
NOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Placing a towel under your neck can create a strong press into the middle of your neck. This contact may make you stiffen up quite a bit. It may also block the neck from untwisting if it looks anything like Fig 3.
Allow the Spine to Untwist
If we think about allowing our backs to lengthen and widen, these words typically have a linear implication to them. I know I’m just as guilty as anyone of drawing a stick figure (or two) with a little arrow here and there to indicate an idea. I try to combat these lines with other phrases like “let the torso be voluminous” or “picture the inner space of your torso expanding”, but at the end of the day your best bet is to have a sense of wonder.
When it comes to untwisting the spine, I will sometimes imagine a flower bud spiralling into a bloom. This imaginative thought works for me sometimes1 and I allow it to go up and down the entire length of the spine. Just remember that you want simple, quiet, and additive thoughts.
Get In Touch
If you’re in NYC, you may learn more about my private teaching practice at johndalto.com.
If you’d like to book any lesson time with me, you can find my booking link here.
No image will work every time. That’s ok!