Move Your Spine to Move Your Body

We know our spine is important — not only does it provide the vertical support we need to be upright, but it allows for range of motion throughout our entire torso. The spine also protects the spinal cord, which is an essential job. When our spine isn’t functioning optimally, we may feel stiffness and/or pain, often in the low back/lumbar region.

Diagram showing the function of the nerves exiting each level of the spinal cord. Attributed to: Vankadara Bhavya sree 1840585 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

But did you know that a poorly moving spine can also influence the rest of your body? You have peripheral nerves that exit the spinal cord through the spaces in between vertebrae, and these peripheral nerves allow for sensation from the body to be sent up to the brain, and movement plans from the brain to be sent to the body. The movement of your legs and arms is possible because those signals are transferred clearly and efficiently along the nerves. Any lack of movement in the spine has the potential to impact the nerves that exit that region of the spinal cord, thus impacting your ability to move and sense your body.

I’ve recently discovered that part of the weakness that I feel in my quadriceps and hip flexors is largely a result of a stiff lumbar spine. When I mobilize my lumbar spine (as in the video below), my strength increases significantly in these muscles. So, before doing any quadricep strengthening work, it would make sense that I would want to mobilize my lumbar spine.

Do you also experience stiffness in your lumbar spine? Or perhaps some weakness in your lower body that you can’t seem to work through? Try the exercise in the video below and see if it helps.

**Please note that my feet are a few inches away from the wall and I am leaning back into the wall (pelvis and up touching the wall) with my knees bent.