Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So let's talk a little bit about posture, because the first thing we're going to do
is we're going to stand in tadasana, or samasthiti, mountain pose, and we're going to learn how
to get into good posture. Now, why is that important? I'm going to turn to the side and
show you the natural curves of the spine. We've got a cervical curve, which is an anterior
curve, it comes out this way, right. We've got a thoracic curve, which comes out toward
the back. We've got a lumbar curve, which goes, again, it's an anterior curve. And then
we've got the sacral curve, which is the smallest curve, and it, um, again goes out to the back
like the thoracic. Those 4 curves form after we're born. When we're born, we only have
the primary, thoracic curve. We are entirely flexed. As we come out, we get a cervical
curve. It's the first curve we get. By age 10, we have the lumbar curve. But if you look
at little kids, they're pretty flat-backed. They don't have that lumbar curve yet. The
problem becomes, after we hit age 10, and get that lumbar curve, we sit. And we sit,
and we sit, and we slouch and we slouch and we slouch. And we just put more and more pressure
on that lumbar spine, and get rid of that comfy disk, and we tighten up the hamstrings,
and all of a sudden that beautiful lumbar curve disappears. And we're going back into
that flexion. Which we don't want to be in as an adult. So when we're talking about doing
a proper forward fold, when we're talking about doing yoga so it doesn't hurt your back,
when we're talking about engaging the lower two "bandhas," we're talking about strategies
to preserve your natural curvature of your spine, which is designed to protect your back.
Simple as that. But you probably haven't learned it before. And today you're going to.