Mat for Scoliosis

Today's topic, um, for our mat class will be scoliosis. Um, scoliosis really refers to you any lateral curvature of the spine. I usually it is, um, develops as either a c or an s curvature, honesty, curvature. What will happen with, with the spine is that the body will be shifted so that the shoulder will drop and the hip on the same side, we'll then lift up, hence creating this c in the body. And when they have an s curvature, which is also a very common, it would drop the uh, shoulder on one side and lift the hip on the other. So that once again, what you're looking at now is this s going through the body. There you generally in the C and s curvatures, also several smaller compensatory curvatures that happen in the spine as well. And the spine is not only curved, but then the vertebral actually rotate.

So then what we then see is that one side of the body, the rib cage is going to be, um, protruding to the front and the other side dropping down on the side. What happens then is that with the musculature with this, with the structural work of the body, the musculature then forms a con cave, that side of the body flopping in and a convex side of the body giving that um, um, overdeveloped musculature, which really creates that the, the hump or the, the movement of, um, the side of the body. One side becomes more rigid, one side becomes more flexible. I'd like to say that this point that when I started, um, PyLadies in 1979, I had a, a 30 degree curvature of my spine and, uh, working with all of the master teachers in particular working individually with Ramana and with Kathy Grant, they looked at my body and basically just said, Kathy, you are on ness. You need to learn how to work your body in different ways.

So they both were instrumental in teaching me asymmetrical patterning, which is really going to be the emphasis of what we're doing today. But also if you ask either one of them, um, about asymmetrical patterning, they'd look at you and say, we have no idea what you're talking about. Because they didn't address it in those terminologies. They simply looked at the different sides of the body and wanted to get me to work evenly and in and symmetrically. So when I'm saying that we have one side of the body that is more rigid than one side of the body that is more flexible, it's really very easy to determine when you do things like, um, the twist movement.

I call this my exorcist rib cause I could just keep going and going and I pretty much can go all the way around on that side. However, when I want to turn the other way, I'm stuck because once again, not only do I have this curvature in my spine, but also we have that rotation of the Vertebra as well. Most of the time, and particularly in young girls, it is, um, a right thoracic, meaning that the curve goes to the right side. In the thoracic spine is scoliosis also. Um, is 70% more likely to happen in girls than in boys and it increases 10 times as much and our young gymnast, dancers and swimmers. So what we are looking at is that nice hyper mobile body with lots of flexibility that tend to gravitate which came first the chicken or the egg.

They gravitate to the sports that they do well to the things that uh, that utilize this hypermobility in the spine. And um, then we have that dual edge sword. A scoliosis affects all of our movements sitting, standing, lying down and on many times there also can be a decrease in lung capacity because we have that for shortens side of the body. So as scoliosis is definitely a problem of asymmetry that we want to work the body towards its center towards becoming more symmetrically patterned. Uh, one of the best things about polities and scoliosis is that in place we are um, really addressing and focusing on the movement from the trunk, the movement, the core muscle movements and the, we do so much of great, um, movement, functional movement of the spine. And so that what we want to do today is to look at all of these things and how they apply to the [inaudible] program that we are already doing and the possibility of adding in a few other movement patterns.

Maybe just another way to look at the movement patterns that we are doing and how to address scoliosis with most of our clients. Now we, even without a scoliosis, a lot of this program is wonderful for no matter who you are addressing. Meaning this is a great program for your golfers who want to have a need to have power but also rotation of the spine. So we're getting, uh, again about core movements. A, anyone who has any imbalance in the body, uh, will definitely benefit from doing this program. And how many here have scoliosis? So we are, um, right up there with the one, two, three, four of us, um, about half of the group that we're looking at here. Um, and so once again, most of the focus and the concentration of what we're doing in these exercises, I was taught from master teacher Kathy Grant and uh, from Ramana who looked at my body and said, let's try to get you to have more balanced muscle movement.

And I might add that, um, the most recent x-ray that I had taken of my spine showed that I had reduced the curvature from that 30 degrees into 15 degrees. So, and I must keep it in check all of the time so that um, a program for scoliosis really applies to me as well. One other thing, there are two types of scoliosis. What I described with the curvature of the spine is structural scoliosis. There's also another type of scoliosis which is functional scoliosis and functional scoliosis has to do with the, um, asymmetry of the musculature but not necessarily any curvature of the Vertebra, the itself and how you can tell, um, the difference between the two types.

We will do. If you want to come up at stand pretty much in the middle of your mat, please face me and we're going to stand with our feet apart and just stand comfortably. And from here we're just going to allow the head to reach over and we're going to begin to roll down. We're going to breathe, inhale and exhale very, very easily and stop in this position. If in fact we have a structural scoliosis, we will see the musculature become more uneven in this rolling down and in this position begin to slowly roll. The two are so up. If it is functional, it decreases rather than increases as the body rolls down.

So in the rolling down position in the side and our, when we're talking about functional scoliosis, it lessons through the muscle work. But if it's structural increases, which you could see right here. I'm such a good example. So as I roll, can you see what's happening to my back? You didn't see it so much when I was here. Did you know that? So you can see how it increases because what's happening, I'm stabilizing my pelvis and, but my spine is going like this. So the muscle musculature is increasing that and you can see that as well as I round over, which we could see as well on these other bodies.

So that what we want to look for, um, is to address it either structurally or functionally. Functional is generally a much easier correction because we're dealing with the muscles. Um, and um, however, as I mentioned and as we noted that the structural can be kept in check and um, helped to reduce particularly reducing the pain and the, um, increase of the curvature by exercise. And exercise is recommended for most of people with scoliosis. So I'm gonna have you step off of your mat, step to the front. Good. And once again, we're going to stand in a nice comfortable position.

So what we're going to be doing here is we're going to roll through the foot and lift the leg up with the knee bent, find your balance and relax your body. Now we want to think about just moving the hip, not the leg. So from the hip, we're gonna open that leg out to the side and I'm going to bring it back into the center. Very nice and bring the leg up and bring it back down. And think about coming from your hip and come down and come in to the center. Let's go to the other side. Roll and lift the leg up. Find your balance, relax into it. Take your leg to the side and pull it into the center.

Take your leg to the side and pull it into the center. Take your leg to the side and pull it into the center. Come down. Let's do one to each side. Leg Up. Lift the leg to the side, pull it center and down and lift the leg up. Lift it out and down and center. What I'd like you to do now is to think about did you have one side that maybe went high and the other side, not so hauling. We all did.

Even the non scoliosis people did. So let's go and roll through the foot. Once again, go out to the side, come in and down other side, go out to the side and come in and calm down. Let's go to the side that doesn't quite have as much mobility. Alright, that would be the side that doesn't go quite so high.

So let's roll there and we're going to open the leg up and now take an inhalation and lifted higher and just relax. Take an inhalation and lifted higher and relax it. Take an inhalation lifted up. Hold it high. Inhale, exhale and come. Yeah, let's go to the other side. We're going to do the same movement, but we're going to have a different emphasis. Go out to the side. Now this time we're going to exhale and pull it to the center of the body and lift it out and go to the center of the body lifted high and pull it into the center of the body and really think about drawing the hips in and together and come center and bring your foot down.

Now let's go back to our first side and just let it go where it wants to go. Take it out, pull it in, take it down other side, take it out, take it in, take it down. Antique. I love the smiles on the face and take it out and take it in and down and other side, take it out and in and down. What happened? Do we out? Did what you did it even out? Yes.

So that the side that was just kind of flying away didn't go hot quite so high and the side that was a little not so mobile pulled more into the center. Okay. Why? Because we reorganize the information we sent from the brain into the body. What we did was we said, okay, what I'd like you to do is to go just a little bit more. What I'd like you to do is to not go quite so high.

So we gave the body this information and once we did the brain said, okay, I get it. Let's even that out. You want to go here? You want to go here, let's try it again. Standing Nice and tall, neutral pelvis, roll through the foot and take it out. Pull it in and down. And other side and take it out and take it in one more time and take it out and take it in and down.

Take it out and take it in. And Yeah, you see the body has its own wisdom but it needs direction. The mind has its own direction. It needs the wisdom. So when we begin to put these together, as Mr [inaudible] told us, it's that unity of mind, body, that balance of mind, body, that is the power of this technique. So we're going to be working with this technique a lot, looking at how we work our bodies differently, how we work, the different sides of the bodies, and also how we can give the body the tools to reorganize the information we are giving it in order to not just do this when we're exercising, but to add this to our daily activities. So the next thing we're going to be doing is let's look at at the body again without side stretching. So we're going to reach the legs slightly apart, take an inhalation and on the exhalation stretch to the side.

Any side you'd like. Okay. Now I want you to kind of pinch yourself there. Come up and go to the other side, Eh, kid, okay. You don't really need to pinch yourself there, do you? And so did you have one side that was a little shorter and the other side that just wouldn't go into in Winton Winton line. So let's do the same technique.

Let's go to our decide that we want to lengthen. First of all, inhale directly to the side and inhale and reached and exhale. Inhale, reach it down and exhale and inhale, reach to the side and exhale pool and come in to the center. Let's go to the other side and go all the way over and down and now dig it. Inhalation, exhale and pull yourself up. Release. Exhale and pull yourself up. Release.

Exhale and pull yourself up. Release and come up and release. Let's go over to this side and up to the center. Let's go over to the side and up center and over to the side and a center and over to the side and lengthen and come up. Did that balance as well so that we feel that the body then has more balanced as we are going. So that as I can feel for myself, that on this side I was here, now I'm another inch down on this side.

I was there and now I'm another inch up. So I'm really again doing that same technique of thinking about that just by changing the focus of the movement. Where do we want the body to go? We can create balance and symmetry in the musculature. Alright, let's bring the feet parallel, the arms up and let's begin to do the roll down. Once again. Um, nice deep breathing, easily rolling one vertebra at a time and lane's getting it through the spine. Try not to sit back with the uh, buttocks reaching past the heels, but keep that heel to hip position. Roll the spine back up.

And as you do, you want to make sure you drop the tailbone down. Langton as you come up. Beautiful Pool all the rib cage and really released the shoulders and let the arms float high to the ceiling. And let's go again. Lengthen up and over, easily reaching and stretch all the way through and stretch, relaxing the upper body. And now, once again, we're going to begin to roll back up, coming through the movement roll and stretch back up. Very nice. One more time. Roll it over and down.

Easily reaching. Beautiful. Watching that position of the spine and relaxing your shoulders. Roll the spine back up. Shoulders come down. And this time we're going to roll down and bend the knees, lift the heels and sit down. And I'd like you to sit on the floor and not on your mat.

So now the same principle that we want to do here and what I'd like you to just be seated nicely on onto the floor and we are going to bring the soles of the feet together in a comfortable position. However you are most comfortable. And what I would like you to do is close your eyes and really get in touch with the interior of the body. How does that feel? Do you have one hip that feels like it sits heavier on the floor than the other? Yes. Raise the hand of your heavy side. There is no right or wrong. People are going to have there. It's your body, wherever that is. Good. I didn't open your eyes.

Keep the hand up because now you're going to take that hand and you're going to place it on the floor, so no right or left is whatever it is on your body, so whatever the hand is down, place that knee down on the floor as well. You'll roll all the way over and you'll place the other opposite foot flat. This knee will point directly up to the ceiling, so really think about, put the other hand down too. You really want to weight yourself into this movement. Good. Now place hand on the calf and the elbow on the opposite leg.

Good, and we're going to inhale and we're going to exhale or you're going to press the tailbone down to the floor. We're going to inhale and lift it up. We're going to accidentally impressed thinking about coming from the interior of the body and if to come back up. I try not to roll the shoulders because straight down so that we're really thinking about the lengthening of the spine and come back up. Do not let your knee go off of the floor. It stays down and we're working from what master teacher Bruce King called the rule of the bones. Really thinking about placing the bones, working from g inside the body all the way through and come up.

We'll just do one more time and lift up this time pressed down. Press it, press it, press it and come all the way through to the other side of the knees, down the other knee, points directly to the ceiling. The foot is flat. Inhale up and exhale and bring the tailbone down. Inhale up, exhale and bring the tailbone down. Remember to keep the shoulders relaxed.

It's a nice soft breath breath because it's a nice soft movement. Let's go back to the first side and bring the arm up and exhale and progressively abode on down. As you do. I'd like you to have the feeling that someone is taking that arm and laying thing it long to the ceiling. But we want to remember we are working from the inside of the body. Let's do two more. Perez it down and one more and press it down.

Let's go to the other side. Remember that the hand is directly out at hip level, that the knee stays to the ceiling. The arm goes up and press down and lift and press down and lift and press through the center. Now both hands back on the floor and square the shoulders. Relax the shoulders and come from the tailbone and press down there. Now inhale, press down again and come back up and heel. Exhale, press down. Inhale and breast and come back.

Reach it down and really stretch and up. Two more times. Hey, hit down and up and now down in into the center and close your eyes. Sit comfortably again. Bring the feet out. However, wherever you're the most comfortable, relax the body, close your eyes and feel how you sit on the floor. Open your eyes. How do we feel? Much better. Balanced. Yes. So we're thinking now about working through the hips to feeling good, great. Not only balanced, but maybe do you feel like a little more connection into the floor so that we really have this nice, um, openness through the pelvis?

Because what do we do in [inaudible] all the time? We talk about neutral pelvis, neutral pelvis and neutral pelvis. But who among us comes to class in neutral pelvis? I don't know. I just can't imagine. I'm sure I do because I've been doing this for 33 years.

So the idea here is that we live in a lopsided society. We're carrying their bags and our baggage and everything else around with us all day long. And then we run into class, and I'm sure none of your clients do this, but they run into class and they throw off their shoes and they throw it their bags and they go, I'm ready. Well, the inside of the bodies, just not the inside of the body's been living here. So we want to take a moment to really alarming the body from the inside out so that we're thinking about what is happening to create a neutral pelvis. And so what did we do? How did we get there? We did five repetitions. We did three, we did five, we did three, we did five. And I'm sure you were all thinking, oh dear, put her out to pasture. She forgot the other side.

And that's just the beginning of the class. We did none on the other side. So what we created was asymmetry. We created more repetitions on one side, not only more repetition than the one side, but then this last movement, we didn't do it all on the opposite side. And again, these are things that were taught to me because when I came to the programming, I didn't realize how bad my spine was. I didn't realize how much work I needed from the inside of my body to get these movements to become more patterned. So I'm was working the same muscles on both sides of the body in an even fashion.

So the exploration of different patterning was given to me by the master teachers in order to help me work so that I could do the exercises on the reformer so that I could do the mat work properly. And so we're talking about a symmetrical patterning in order to come back into cemetery. And then whenever we do something with an asymmetrical movement, we then want to come into cemetery. So sit now, close your eyes, feel how the pelvis is sitting on the floor and now just as small movement, bring the tailbone underneath you do not change anything else in the body and then roll and sit up nice and tall. So we're not making a contraction from the outside. Once again, we want to think about moving from the bones, from the interior of the body, slowly working and coming back up to sitting and feel I. Now when you go back, are you willing to one side or the other? This is the time to correct that from how we are sitting and how when we move from the pelvis, once again, how we come up and sit nice and tall. Okay, you can go on your match now and you want to center yourself on your mat and you'll face inward.

Good. So what we are going to do now is that same kind of movement patterning. We're going to bring the arms out to the side and up and we're going to relax the shoulders. So another way we can change the dynamic of a movement is through our breath. You're going to lift up and go into a side stretch from there.

Keep both hips centered on your mat and round your toes. Oh, all the way over. Now we'll just take a look at your hand and see how far the hand is from the mat across the leg. Yeah. And come back up to center. Just a natural, easy side stretch.

Go over to the side and now keep both hips level and flat and see where the arm hits on to the body and come back up. How are would you have one side where you have more arm coming out than the other? Okay. For me it's this one. And so what we are going to do is let's go to the arm that is not as far out, so the [inaudible], so this arm, when I stretch, I'm in the middle of the forearm, this arm, when I stretch, I'm at the wrist. So go to the side that we want to link. You can come up and over. Inhale and reach more and exhale and release.

Inhale en reach more. Exhale and release. Inhale and reach it again. Very nice and both hips are level. Exhale, release. All right, exhale and reach more. Inhale and come back. Exhale, enrich, reach more.

Yeah, inhale and come back. Exhale and reaching out and inhale and lift up. Let's go to the other side. Inhale, exhale and comical. Inhale and stretch out. Exhale and pull back. Inhale, both hips are level. Exhale to come back.

Inhale and stretch. Exhale and come back. Exhale into the stretch. Inhale and exhale and stretch. Inhale and back and exhale and stretch. Inhale and back.

Lift to the side and come into the center side. Stretch and over and up and center, side stretch and over and Oh, up and center and again side stretch and over and uh, and center or one more side stretch. Take it over and come up and center. Very nice. How did that feel? So did we again get that more even? Because did you now for some people on the inhalation, we get more reach for some people on the exhalation, how many of you had on the inhalation you got more of a stretch sh and on how many of you on the exhale we got more of a stretch. Okay, you inhalers are all wrong. Just kidding. There is no right, there is no wrong.

We want to think these are our bodies and this is how our body is responding to the information that we are giving head so that when we are working through these movements, we want to not judge, not preconceive, not thing that we know the body in front of us. Because as Kathy grant always said to me, do you know what? You're going to teach that client today? And I would go, oh, of course I've prepared everything that I'm going to teach today. And she said, that's very good. Now throw that away and look at the person in front of you. What do they need from you today? Did they not sleep well? Did they have a fight with their husband? Did that, are they in a hurry?

Do they have all the time in the world that is going to determine how and what you teach? Yes, you should have all your tools in your toolbox and yes, you should know really what that client wants, but you cannot presuppose what it is until they are there in front of you. And it's not enough to just approach them. You have to see them. You have to see the needs of the body and the whole person through the movement. Let's go into our leg circles. So from this position, we're going to extend the legs out so you'll sit more so that the feet are in the front of the Mat. Very nice and feel that nice alignment through the pelvis.

Lengthen the spine upward and now one vertebra at a time. We want to reach down to the mat. If you need to soften the knees or hold the thighs, that's perfectly fine. The idea here is to get in touch with your spine, one vertebra at a time. Let's bring the arms out at the sides of the body and that's bend one leg and take the leg up. Now the leg, we want it to be nice and long to the ceiling without locking the knee, but we want to have energy through the foot. It is not in a strong, overly pointed, but we want to make sure that the toes are still reaching hard to the ceiling.

From that position, we're going to keep the hip down and cross the leg over the body only as far as we can with the hip down and see where that position is. Open the leg out to the side of the body and keep the opposite hip flat and down. Do not change the foot position. Now this time bring the leg across the body and allow your hip to come up the other hip and foot. Stay flat on the floor. So we don't want the foot to rule and we want to plant the heel down so the heel is strongly on the floor. Very nice. And now from here what I want you to do is I'd like you to just press your hip to the mat without moving your foot. Push that hip down, down this way. There you go. Ah, don't move your foot.

That's your resistance point. And push the hip down and lifted up and push the hip down. It's a small movement coming from the interior of the body and push the hip down and lift it up and push the hip and hold. Let's go to the other side of the body and allow the opposite hip to come up. You got same leg, same leg goes out and the other hip comes up off the mat, up and out. Let the hip roll with you.

Now holding the foot still and steady. Push the leg that hip down. Beautiful and roll it again and again. What we were thinking about is moving from those bones and if you're going to help someone on this note, I am not pulling or pushing, I'm stabilizing so that what she is doing is simply working from her own body. And I'm just giving her the cue that we really don't want the foot to move, but I'm not holding, anchoring, pulling or pushing.

Bring the leg center, lower it down and let's go to the other side. So we bring the leg up, we cross it over the body, hip, down, hip down. Feel your range of motion. Open it out to the opposite side of the body. Hip Down, hip, down and S. Feel your range of motion. Go back across the body. Very nice. Like a little tick tock and let the hip roll up naturally.

Allow planting the heel down so that we really have length on the opposite leg and hip comes down and up. Leave the foot where it is and pull down away from it. That's it. And uh, and press it down, lift it up, he breathing. Exhale down, lifted up and exhale down and lifted up. Let's take it to the outside of the body. And now let the opposite hip come up.

Hold the leg where it is, and push the hip down. Beautiful. And take it back up and pull it down and take it. Exhale down. Very nice and up and exhale down and come up.

Bring the leg up into the center. Now lower the leg and let's go back to our first side. So we're going to lift the leg, take it over to the side. Hip is down, take it out to the other side. Hip is down.

This now determines the beginning and end of your leg. Circle c because now we have the pelvis in the correct position, the leg and the correct. Fuzzy, the supporting leg in the correct position. So now we know that in order to get the most work into the hip joint, this is where we'll start and and our circles. Five circles. Let's go circle one and circle two. Nice deep.

A full breath takes you around three and four and five go the opposite way. You know where you're starting and ending. Very nice, beautiful stabilization and around and around. Circle and complete the fifth one and lower the leg down and let's do the other leg. We know we were starting. We know where we're stopping. We're keeping our torso completely stable and cross it over and circle one answer coats you. Full breath. Beautiful positions. Three and to to go.

And Five, let's go the other way. Open it out. You know you're starting and stopping. Great stabilization. See how much more work you're getting out of your hip circles, getting all the way into the core of the body with good stabilization and complete five circles and lower your legs down. Very, very nice. Now let's bring the legs in. Okay.

Lift the head, neck and shoulders anchor. Lift the tailbone up. Press it down. Lift the tailbone up, releasing the small of the back. Lift the tailbone up and down. Now lift the tailbone up and roll up to sitting. And from there we're going to roll back and up. Maintain your alignment to maintain your body design just three times with focus and awareness on your spine. Back and up.

Alright, let's cross our legs. Uncross your legs and cross them the other way. From Ramana in my very first session she had me cross my legs and uncross them and cross the other way and it was the same thing. I had no idea what she was doing, but when I crossed my legs, what did I do? I went right into my scoliosis so we always had me cross and uncross and cross the other way. Let's roll like a ball with our legs cross.

Shall we roll it back and roll it up really back, roll it up and roll it back. Feel different. Does it feel different when you have your legs crossed? Yes, of course. Because we've changed the position of the pelvis when we crossing her legs. So now I'm cross and cross the other way and roll it back and roll it up and roll it back. Yeah. One size doesn't really want to do that. Does head and roll it back and role to come up.

So again, what we're looking at is how do we pound in the body. We all think that we are working a body symmetrically, but when in fact what we are really doing is we are adjusting to all the input of our daily lives as well as the problems structural and functional that we face every day. The next thing I'd like to do, she's going to continue to roll, but I would like you to sit right in the center of your mat and we'd like you to pay attention now to how much space you have on each side and really center your body, make sure that you are, you have an evenness and that the body is straight on the mat. Bring your legs into the willing like a ball position and three more rollback and up one lift up and two and up. Beautiful and three come up. And where are we on the mat?

So no, no, stay there. Stay there. Cause we want to, we want to correct it by what we are doing. Right? So if you found that yourself moving to one side or the other, again, what is happening? Your dominant side is doing the work. And before we do the next day, I quickly tell the story cause I, it's so amusing to me. When I first started Pele's um, I thought willing like a ball was like, it's really stupid exercise. I just didn't get it at all because I would roll back and come up and rolled it and come up and all that. So by number five, I was facing the back of the room. Everybody else was still facing forward and I thought, you know, when I get really good at this, I'm going to be able to go all the way around.

So then, so I thought the movement was, I thought the point was to go around, but on, honestly what was happening, the side of my back that was that dominant side that hunched over was doing all the work and the other side of my back never touched the mat. So it took me a really, really long time. And all of these tools, crossing the legs, uncrossing the legs rolling, measuring space, all of these things in order to finally get my spine to roll in a more organized way. So we're gonna cross the legs the first way and we're going out, uncross them and cross them the other way. We're going to measure where we are on the mat and make sure you're eating. Stay where you, you stay, where you w if you were crooked, that's a good thing. At least you're never as crooked as me, so it's fine. Roll it back.

Roll it up three times, roll it back, roll it up and roll it back and roll it up. Where are you now? Are you in the center? Yes, you are. Okay, so that's why. That's why I wanted to give you the tool to notice that when you do it this way, you're not really doing this. You're doing this, but when you crossed the leg and uncrossed it, what happened was you got pooled because your hips now have changed. Now let's cross you. Go the other way and see where we end up. Once again, there's no right or wrong to this. Roll it back. It's your body.

It's how your body moves in space and roll back and roll it back and roll and come up. How are we? All right? So the goal would be then a, and let's just do two more. I know it's a lot of rolling, but two more because we want to even the body out. We always want to finish in assuming symmetrical pattern. So now that you're in the center, we'll back and up two more times and maintain that alignment all the way through and roll back and roll up.

So now that you've done it with the hips crossed, once again, what's happening is you're giving the body new information, better information to work more symmetrically. So the idea here is yes, let it go. Pull it back. Find what works for you so that when you finish the exercise, you end up centered on your mat. All right? That's bring your legs around to the side and you're all going to face me. So you're pretty place your legs to the opposite side. Good to the laser, to the outside of the map. Thank you very much.

And we're going to take the arms up and relax the shoulders down, and we're going to twist the body to the side. And from here we're going to bring both arms down. We're going to square the hips and we're going to really make sure that the sternum is lifted in the head in line with the spine with equal weight on both arms. I want you to press down and come up. Now I want you to really think about this back hip pushing down to onto your heel. Don't let it come off of the heel. Press down and back as long and straight and come up and press it down.

Yeah, and come up. Keep sitting on that hill and now take that front arm and place it behind the back. Sit back on that heel and press down to the floor. The shoulders are level and come up and press it down and come up and press it down and come up. Let's extend that back leg out onto the floor, but keep that hip long and lean. Press it down.

Then push back up and for rescued this fine long and straight and push it up and press it down and lanes into come up, pull the leg in, stretch body over and lift to the opposite side and come center other side. When you bring the arms up, turn the torso and place both hands down. Now already do you feel that one side? We have a lot more space between our hip on the floor and when to sit down on that heel it's a lot more difficult and keeping that sternum long. Keep that back hip down and take it down and press it up and take it down and exhale up. Sternum lifted. It's fine.

Long head in line with the spine and now we'll take that arm behind the back and take it down and lift it up and take it down. Very nice. So we having more difficulty on one side than the other and take it down, lift it up, extend the leg long back behind you and keep that steering lifted and torso low, long gated and press down and come back up and press down and up and press down. And come up and pull into the center as well. Um, so once again, what we want to really concentrate on here is again, we want to think that it's the problem affects all of our movements, sitting, standing, lying down. The way we carry things, the way we hold our bodies, all of that is affected by the scoliosis of the spine.

So we want to think about anchoring the body lanes in the spine. The body design and body positions are crucial throughout all of these movements. And then when we're finding we're having a little more difficulty, we can either do that side first, add more reputation. But once again, the idea is to work the body in a pattern that is making it more balanced from the inside of the body. So now we're going to lie down on the Mat, nice and long, arms in front of us, separate the feet and relax them on the mat. And from here we're going into eight swan position. So we're going to re, um, bring the shoulder blades down along the spine, anchor in that position and lift. The two are so lightly up.

Inhale at the top and now think about stretching the front of the body from the pubic bone to the naval. Close the ribs in the front and reach a long your mat. Stretching even further through the fingertips. Now bring the shoulders down. Make that a very important movement to begin and pull back and lift to come up.

Yeah, lift lower body long at the top of the movement and again langs in stretched yourself longer. As you slide it down to your torso is becoming longer. The ribs are staying in or not releasing as you come down. It's a very light contraction, but it keeps us activated in a way from our mats. One more time. Chicken up and up.

Lift at the top, thinking about pulling away way from the knocks and stretch yourself down. Reach yourself long and no longer. Okay. Pull yourself back. Shoulders first and come on up from there. Take the arm up, turned where the back turn under your arm. Turn under your arm. Ah, come center and arm down the other side, lifted up and turn and turn and come center.

And now the army just did do it again cause you did your stronger arm first lifted up and turn it nice and comes center. And yeah, it's how the body works. It needs to be retrained. Beautiful. So it doesn't matter which side you're turning to you and come in and down and again, lift it up. Turn your torso. Very nice. Come Center and down.

Notice the rotation on both sides of the body. Does one side have more rotation from under the ribs and the other and come and calm down. Slide yourself out for rest yourself back and sit down on your heels. Bring your arms back behind you and just relax the shoulders. Relax the upper body. Get a nice long stretch. Use your breath.

Roll the spine up to sitting during your legs around to the side. Now we're going to do a modified mermaid move. What I want to think, why don't you to think about here is the lifting across from the hip. So once again, we want to think about bolting both sides of the pelvis and from there we're just, we're going to press up, but it's from the hip that we're pressing up and the hip comes down, they hit, comes up very nice and we reach and press down and lift and stretch and press to come down. Let's bring the legs around and we'll go to the other side. Legs are around and nice long torsos bring the arm out. Once again are just think about coming straight from those hips and straight up.

Oh did we once again have that one side that wants to tilt or turn that does not really press as evenly. Think about bolting hip to hip. Think about coming up evenly like a swing movement, like a pendulum. And also when you're up, think about lengthening the torso. Let that hip lower, but it comes right back up. Hold it up, get a long stretch over. Beautiful and come down and sit into the center. The bridge is next. So we're going to bring the legs together, roll the spine down, one vertebra at a time.

Lengthen through your finger tips. Relax your shoulders, roll your spine up, one vertebra at a time. Relaxing the shoulders, relaxing the neck, prs to come up and take a breath at the top. Open from the throat, relax in through the shoulder blades and keep the pelvis lifted as we rolled down one vertebra at a time. Rolling slowly and progressing through the hips. Cross one leg over the other and cross and cross the other way. You knew I was going to say that. Roll the spine. One Vertebra at a time.

Think about rolling up the center of the spine. Even though what we are doing puts us at an angle. Roll your spine down one vertebra at a time. Feel the connection into maybe spots in the back muscles that you haven't really felt before and cross and cross the other way. Roll the spine up one vertebra at a time.

How does that feel? Yes, it's much easier to roll it down. One Vertebra at a time. Now stay on this side. Roll up again. Extend the leg to the ceiling on cross. Cross the other way and roll your spine down. So you stayed up.

So we're going to go up one side of the spine and down the opposite side of the spine. Roll back up. Now stay up nice and high. I know this is difficult, but just take that leg high to the ceiling. Fold it down. Don't change the pelvic alignment. Take the other leg up, cross it over, and we're rolling down the center of the spine. Even though you're not going to feel this, that you're, that you're centered because one hip is higher than the other. Roll back up.

Extend the leg, place it down other leg up and reach and come all the way down. Really in one vertebra at a time. One more time. Roll it up on crossing. Go to the ceiling, place to lake flat. Now this time, stay there. Rural down the center of the spine. One Vertebrae at a time. Breathing deeply placed the tailbone on the floor, and as soon as you're down, let's roll the spine right back up. Very, very nice. And now from the really focusing, concentrate on the symmetry of rolling down the center of the spine.

Relax through the movement. Concentrate on your body, stretch vertebra from Vertebra until we're all the way down into that position. How did that feel? Did we get some more movement in the spine? In the articulation of the spalling? Fantastic. All right, from there, let's just rule ourselves out and sit nice and tall. I'd like you to sit off of the match onto the floor one more time. So come this way. Good. So, so go to side of the Mat.

Sit comfortably, bring the soles of your feet together and close your eyes. Feel how you're sitting on the floor and open your eyes and tell me how you feel. Do you seal? Feel balanced. So we are working on these exercises, kind of taking the body apart to put it back together to try and focus on aligning the pelvis. Even though we're a lot of what we're doing. So much of what we're doing is crossing and uncrossing in the movements. So what we want to really just take away from this as how to apply it into your mat class. How many things that you can do, where we are feeling most likely that we are even because it were for someone who has scoliosis, crooked is straight and straight as crooked.

When the master teachers first told me to stand up straight, I said, I am. And they gave me a poll and I, and they said, look at how crooked you are. And I'm going, no, I'm not your ceilings off, but I'm just fine because we we, this is how we live, this is our proprioception. So the idea is to really get into the body, to take it apart and to put it back together. As I mentioned, I was so, so fortunate to have my teachers really help me as an individual who wanted to learn [inaudible], but as an individual with scoliosis who wanted to learn Palase and what I think the greatest gift that they gave me was to say, you can do this, but we're going to give you the proper tools to get there. Now the master teachers all had different approaches to it.

For me and for my body. As you will encounter many different approaches, many, much, there's research, there's all kinds of different things out there for scoliosis and for asymmetrical repatterning. And the more things that you can learn, the more things that will work in your toolbox will make you a much better and more, um, fully aware teacher to be able to work with the people in front of you. So I hope you enjoyed that and I hope that you can take away these tools in order to work with your clients with scoliosis. Thank you. Hey, since then.