Lower Back Exercises: Full Swan With Rotation

Video Transcript

"We're going to work with doing full swan, but we're going to add in a little bit of rotation as long as you don't have any limitations in your back. This will help facilitate the thoracic's. You're going to have to really be strong at this, so you've mastered doing just a basic swan, intermediate and advanced before you want to try full swan with rotation. We'll come down with our elbows starting underneath our shoulders. Again, create that mouse house in your abdominal area to support your low back, so navel-to-spine, neutral cervical posture, neutral pelvic posture, and you're thinking about that energy shooting out the top of your head and your toes. Relax your feet and then release and if you feel like you want to come out you can do that, but you're going to have more control over rotation. Muscles can't resist rotation, they're going to fire in the direction of the joint so the movement is actually going to come from the back and the upper torso just all working together, so try not to twist your shoulders. Leave your nose in line with your sternum. Extend and lift, and then you can rotate by leading with your chest. And inhale and exhale, and other way. You only got about 10 to 15 degrees of lateral range of motion, even in the most conditioned athletes, so it's not going to be a big movement. You're working with small intricate muscles of the back so it's got to be smooth and controlled. Breathe to facilitate the oxygen, get it into the muscles so you've got that fuel you need to work, and release. Full swan with rotation. Just make sure you have your three -basic, intermediate and advanced- before you add in the rotation. "