This week's topic is does kyphosis cause lower back pain or can it cause lower back pain? And so we will talk about what kyphosis is first of all. And it is a postural natural curvature of the spine that can become exaggerated or kind of be under exaggerated. And it's in the upper back. So can things that affect the upper back like kyphosis cause lower back pain. So we'll be talking about that. Diving deep. So thank you for being here and welcome and we will get right into it. Holly. Welcome, Holly. Good to see you here, Holly. It says I appreciated your response last week. I was a yoga teacher, was tent camping, hiking when my back injury became worse back in April of this year. I do PT on a yoga mat ever since. I think I figured out the source of my rib pain I have recently started using trekking poles. I think they fatigue my rib area. Yeah, definitely. And that is kind of on topic with today's stream, we're going to be talking about the thoracic spine, which is what your rib cage attaches to. So yeah, if you have any questions about that, that is right in line with with the stream today. And Nathan says something tells me my question sparked today's topic. We'll see. Yeah. My admin did compile all the questions from this week, and we noticed that there were several mentions of kyphosis. And every week does seem to have a bit of a theme. And that theme does determine the topic for every week. So Nathan, I am going to go ahead and say your assumption is correct. So yeah, I hope that's a good system to let the students kind of decide. It's never been something I've really planned on or even requested. But it does seem, you know, that that old rule, when it rains, it pours. When there always seems to be a big like theme of the week of questions that are all on the really specific topic. And it's great. So it makes my job easier to decide what we're talking about. So without further ado, let's get right into it. So what is kyphosis? First of all, kyphosis is a medical term that is used to describe a curvature of the spine. And I'm not going by the dictionary here, but my definition is it's a forward bending curvature. And so we have natural kyphosis in our spine. And that is primarily in the upper back. And there are people that have minimal to no kyphosis in their upper back. And that would actually be considered abnormal or uncommon. And then there are what is most common for an abnormality is exaggerated kyphosis. So that's where we get the hunchback. That's where we get the rounded shoulders. And that also has effects down the chain and up the chain. So then that's what we're going to be talking about today. And so the kyphosis, the natural kyphosis in our spine is in the thoracic spine. And so that's where we're going to be focused today. And what happens if I were to go ahead and over exaggerate this curvature and make it more curved forward, you could call that a hyper ptosis. And that tends to happen in us because of our chair laden lifestyle. A lot of sitting, a lot of riding in a car, watching TV. We tend to slouch, and then we have to kind of lean forward. And that is something that promotes hyper kyphosis, too much kyphosis. So. So if I were to straighten that out now I'm looking at the ceiling. I can't see the TV. I'd have to hinge forward at the hips. So when you are watching TV, it's okay. It's convenient because your spine is bending forward, which is something that it's able to do and it's somewhat comfortable. But then when you get up off the couch or get out of the car and I mentioned the car because that's something we do in the car as well. People tend to recline the seat in the car, so you're leaning back in the car. And so if you don't want to be looking at the roof of your car, you want to look at the road, you hunch forward. And so that also promotes kyphosis. Not a problem when you're in the position, but when you get up off of your seat and you go walk around and that curvature is overexaggerated from repetitive lifestyle habits that can create problems. And so the answer to the question in the stream can kyphosis lead to lower back pain, of course, is yes. And not only can it lead to lower back pain, but it can also lead to neck problems as well. And so we talked about what kyphosis is. We talked about kind of the lifestyle that can cause it. And we answered the question of the stream. So I think naturally the next question is how do you reverse it? Or how do you prevent kyphosis from happening? And the first thing I want to mention before talking about that is kyphosis in its natural state is okay. There is a natural kyphotic curve in the spine, but when it gets overexaggerated is the problem. So we don't want to Prevent kyphosis or eliminate kyphosis. We want to prevent hyperkyphosis or the overexaggerated curvature that comes from lifestyle and other causes as well, which, uh, I get into in the three part series, the Art of Core Balance, we talk about how stress brings us into a curled forward position, the protective position. So if you haven't seen that, that's goes pretty deep into other causes of this. So we don't want to prevent it. We don't want to eliminate it, but we want to reduce the pattern, the common pattern that is predictable where it gets overexaggerated. And the first step is to prevent or kind of stop doing the activities that I was talking about earlier. So if you drive in a car a lot, one of the things that you can do is take your seat from that reclined position and bring it forward. And so you're thinking, well, I. It's not a big problem. I don't really have pain up there, but we just talked about how. One example of how kyphosis can lead to lower back pain because it causes extra stress on the lumbar spine. If you want to look up and you can't extend through your thoracic spine, then it's going to have to come from either your neck or your lower back. And that is excessive stress on those areas because your body is over rounded towards the ground. And another thing you can do is be aware of how you're sitting. If you're watching Netflix or whatever, you do, whatever you watch. I think most people watch things these days, but if not, and you're someone who reads, be aware of how you're sitting when you read. So we do have several questions about this topic in today's stream. So as we go through those, I'll answer more questions. And my final kind of solution I wanted to mention about preventing or reversing hyperkyphosis is the front anchors. If you are in the program and you have gotten to to module two, day one three for those front anchor awareness and progression exercises. When you push away from the front of your rib cage and you are connecting it to the ground and pushing away from that spot, that motion does the exact thing that we would want to do to reverse Hyperkyphosis. We're pushing away from the rib cage, and that opens up your posture. And so you can get down on the floor and connect to your upper front anchor, and then you can get up off the floor and apply that to your normal life. So that's the application of core balance training of the front anchors to this topic. So let's get into some of these questions. And before we get started with that, we have been doing a bit of a tradition. We started a few weeks back where we have a featured student of every week. So this week's featured student is Sherry. And so Sherry has been in the program for several weeks and she is still in the program, still going. And I just wanted to honor her. And I wanted to mention that, you know, normally the featured student is a student who completed the program. And so they get you get this program complete email, and they answer these questions. And I share the answer to the questions on their answers to the questions on the featured student slides. Well, Sherry hasn't finished the program, but she is doing the program exactly how I would want every student to do it. And she's going at her own pace. And it is representative of what this is all about in real life. Because even if you finish the program, the concepts that you learned do not end. There is no finish until your life is finished. You continue to apply this. And so I just felt it appropriate to feature a student who was not finished with the program still going, but has made a lot of progress for her own level of fitness, her own health and just want to honor you, Cheri. So thank you for being in the program. I've really appreciated you watching your progress and answering your questions and helping you out. And for anyone that feels like they're going to complete the program and it's over and they'll be a featured student, I want to tell you that it does not end, and that even after the program is over, you continue to apply and integrate the concepts for the rest of your life. And that's what this is all about. That's how this works. It's knowledge for life. Sherry says she posted this in the front anchor's challenge module, which is in module three. She says, I love this posture and how it really brings awareness to proper alignment. It is very evident when my spine is neutral and when it is not. And the challenge of lifting a limb feels great. I can feel the core activation and how my body adapts to the challenge without my overt effort to do so. I am having a problem, however. I have an old shoulder injury and though I can do the limb lift without pain a few hours later, and especially at night trying to sleep, I begin to have significant pain in my shoulder. The pain does not come from lifting that limb, rather from the weight on that side when I lift the opposite arm. Do you have a modification for this posture or any other suggestions? So we will answer this question right now. It does tie into the topic because the shoulders are directly affected by our spinal posture, especially kyphosis. If we round forward, it curls the shoulders forward. It's called rounded shoulder posture. And when you go to lift your arm, if your shoulders are forward and you go to lift your arm. It's going to have less range of motion there. And there is a bone in the shoulder. Let's see if I can. I won't be able to point directly to it because I can't get my mouse over there. But if I go over here, you have your scapula to the right of my mouse. And there's a bone on the scapula that covers over the top of the shoulder. And that is a common bone that impinges with the with the humerus, the arm bone. And so this could be a cause of what you're experiencing, Sheri. But in your case, I actually think that it would be something different. So we'll talk about that in a moment. But just to tie the first possible cause to our topic, if you open up your shoulders and give your shoulder more room to lift up and there's no Impingement. That in itself can be a solution to many shoulder problems. So correcting that kyphosis that hyperkyphosis can help with shoulder function as well. So with Sherry, the reason I think it might be something different is because you mentioned, especially at night, trying to sleep, and I wanted to bring up that side sleeping. Sleeping on your side is one of the main causes for rotator cuff tears in people later in life. And so you can estimate that there's about there's a very high percentage. I can't remember the percentage. So I'm not going to name it, but a very high percentage of people in their sixties, 70s and later will have a torn rotator cuff. And that is largely correlated with side sleeping. Those people are more likely to be people that sleep on their side. So just putting that pressure all night long. On your shoulder can have an effect on those tiny little muscles that make up your rotator cuff and is not one big event that happens, but bit by bit, bit by bit, over many years. One of the muscles in the rotator cuff, the supraspinatus can just tear a little by little, just like each fiber. You know, one fiber at a time. You can imagine. And so that can be that that could be a cause for you. Sherry, just because you mentioned the sleeping. And then when you say you can do the limb lift without pain, that tells me that there's no impingement. What I was talking about before with the shoulder, you know, with the posture that tells me there's probably no impingement happening. And it's the putting the pressure on your arm as you go into the weight bearing portion of the front anchors challenge. That is the shoulder that hurts. And so the one of the jobs of the rotator cuff is to, if this is the head of my humerus, is to stabilize it and to protect it. And so when you are doing something like weight bearing on the arm, it holds it in place so that that joint is not moving around in the socket. You can imagine the joint can move around in the socket. And this can cause problems with the labrum with other things inside that socket. So it's very important to have an intact rotator cuff for shoulder health. And that's actually what I'm going to hypothesize. And that there may be a situation, Sherry, with your ability to bear weight related to the rotator cuff, just stabilizing that shoulder. That's the main job for it. And it also does do rotation, you know, really subtle rotation of the shoulder. But in this case that's not as relevant. So your question is do you have any modification for this posture or any other suggestions. Yes. So one thing you can do, one of the recommendations I make for people that are having shoulder pain in general, this is helpful for a large scope of shoulder issues is to practice weight bearing because it does strengthen the entire cuff of the shoulder. It strengthens every muscle in the shoulder. To put weight on your arm requires the co-contraction, they call it, of every muscle in the shoulder. And you want to do that in a graded, progressive way. So if weight bearing on the ground with all your upper body weight on one arm and your knees. So quadruped position is too much weight. Then you want to incline your position. And so one thing you could do is go onto the back of your couch or even a wall. If you're having a lot of pain and it's a bad injury. And so that reduces the intensity of the exercise. And so you can do the Phrynichus challenge where you have, let's say you have your knees on the floor and your arms up on a step, like at the bottom of your staircase. And that would be an inclined way to do the exercise. And you'll just want to modify the movements to be lighter and more subtle. And then you can progress from there. And if that's even too much sherry, then you'll want to try even a higher position like the wall, and you won't be able to do the front anchor's challenge. But what you can do is just practice weight bearing on your shoulders. And that's actually where I might start you anyways, is just get your shoulders to be able to tolerate weight bearing through a progressive program of standing in front of a wall and leaning slightly into the wall and getting some weight bearing. And then as you progress, you're going to progress to a lower surface, like the back of your couch or your countertop, and then even lower down to staircase and ultimately down to the floor. And that is progression. That's what this program is all about. And it's also a great way to build up your ability to do a lot of the, you know, functional movements that we require getting up from bed, we're pushing into our shoulders, right? And so it's very applicable to, to life to be able to bear weight on your shoulders. And you want to be able to do that. I see a post in the chat from a former student who I haven't heard from in a long time, and I'm very happy to see Dolores. Welcome and great to see you here. And Sherry, you're here on the live stream as well. I see says you're trying it as I speak. It seems very doable. Thank you for these suggestions. Yeah. So the progressive graded exposure to weight bearing on the shoulders, that's really what it is. It doesn't have to be any specific surface or any specific method. It's just progressive and it's graded exposure over time. And so you can modify the front acres challenge to get to the point where there's not pain, or maybe just very little pain, and modify the movements accordingly. And it will depend on your environment. So we're going to go ahead and finish the post by Sherry. It says, by the way, I'm really beginning to experience wonderful results with your program. And after nine years of being largely bedridden nineteen to twenty hours a day, I am now able to be up more, take walks through our woods and leave the house more often. Thank you for this program, Doctor Ryan. It brings me so much hope and I look forward each day to doing my fifteen minutes of intention, awareness and movement. Oh, that's so beautiful to hear. Thank you for sharing that and I am proud of you, Sheri. You mentioned I would like to add the improvement I experienced took a number of weeks. I encourage other students to stick with it. This program is not an instant magic cure, but if you commit to it long term, I really believe we are retraining our bodies to move differently and to engage muscles in a more safe and healthy way. Don't give up even more beautiful. I think that I One of my favorite things that happens in the program is when students give other students hope and advice and encouragement. It's just an amazing thing. And what you say, Cherie, is so true. It's not an instant magic cure. And I mean, I get goose bumps. Bumps. Reading what you wrote. Cherie. It's if you commit long term, you can really accomplish so much more than what many people believe they're capable of. And, Cherie, it would have been so easy for you to drop out and quit after a few weeks because the progress was slow. But what I didn't know, and what you just shared with us, is that you're coming from a place where you were bedridden for Nineteen to twenty hours a day before this, and now you're being up out of bed more. You're taking walks and this is bringing more life to you. And and it's just incredible to see that you stuck with it and you didn't give up. And even though the progress was slow, you believed. And because of that persistence, you persevered. And it's only because of that, because this program is here. It's not going anywhere. And what matters in the outcome of the students is not the program. It doesn't change. I answer questions and the protocol works, but what matters is that you do it and you stick with it and you cater. You adapt the program and the pace of the program to your fitness level and your needs to improve where you're at in your life right now. So some of the most encouraging and inspiring stuff that I've been able to share. So thank you so much, Cherie, and keep going. I'm proud of you. And even when you finish the program, keep going. This one is from Frank and he posted this in the front anchor's part two. That is module two, day three I believe. Right after the ten percent rule lesson. So Frank says had some work to do outside yesterday. Stubbornly did it and got through it on September third. My back went out again. As usual. I just leaned forward a little bit and felt it had happened in July and I had PT and took a few weeks to go away. Often it goes away in a couple of days. This one is the worst only along my belt line. Sometimes the left is worse and sometimes the right. At moments I am not bad. At others I can't walk. Really severe pain, no radiation down the leg, although sometimes my left foot aches a little. I'm sorry to hear this, Frank. You say I have an appointment next Tuesday with a pain management doctor I've seen. Maybe she can schedule some trigger points. My last MRI was February twenty nineteen. No nerve root impingement noted. I might I might ask her to prescribe a new MRI. I was just wondering what would be the most effective in the program to relieve this so I can function? Just go through the progression as is or something specific. Okay, so let me take a look here at some notes I have for myself. And this is something that you sent me, Frank, before regarding your MRI. And it looks to me like there is nothing major or significant to be concerned about. Okay. In your MRI. So I want to make that clear that that's my opinion. I have done a entire live stream on MRIs and the impact that they have on our psychology. So I would encourage you to check that out because I think it could be really important for your psychology to be able to kind of disassociate with the findings in the MRI. If we were to take a picture of any one's spine, even a healthy spine with no back pain at all, we're going to find mild, even moderate, and in some cases, severe damage to the spine. And there's a really poor correlation with pain. And actually, as this is consistent with what I'm finding with your MRI is that there's nothing significant or severe in the MRI. And so that's good for you. But there is severe pain. And so there's a very poor correlation between MRI findings and between symptoms and function as well. So we want to get you back to function. We want to reduce your symptoms. This MRI from for me is not going to change anything. And so we will talk. I want to give you tips about what I recommend for you. But first I do want to mention that this works in the reverse as well. So if someone had a severe MRI finding that was scary. It also does not mean that they have severe pain. They could have no pain at all. And they generally, you know, if it was threatening to, you know, mobility or threatening to the spinal cord or the ability to, you know, threatening nerves in a serious way. That's when I would take a closer look. But if it were not doing any of those things, the MRI would, for the most part, not change anything about my recommendations and my protocol, because really, it's just a picture of damage that is not telling me anything about the cause. And the cause is what we want to address. It's really hard to address damage. So back to you, Frank, and specifically with your situation, what's the most important information to me is what you write here. And it says you did work outside and you stubbornly did it and got through it. So maybe when you say stubbornly, you kind of mean that you did it in a hasty way, like quickly? Or do you mean that you feel you felt like maybe you shouldn't be doing it, but you did it anyway, so something like that. And on September third, your back went out again. So this seems like it was before your outside work. As usual, I just lean forward a little bit and felt it. Okay, so not related to any outside work at that point. And this is a recurring thing. Physical therapy helped it go away in a couple days. So those are kind of the hints or the clues to me on what could be causing it. And then now we have some symptoms, which is along your belt line and sometimes left, sometimes right at moments. Not bad. Okay. Sometimes you cannot walk. But the good thing is there's no radiation down the leg. Okay. So just in my opinion, Frank, it doesn't seem like there's any nerve Involved, so that's always a good thing. This seems like it is probably muscular when people have really severe pain where it's like seize the back seizes up. Those are usually if it's not like electrical type feeling nerve pain, it's usually the muscles that seize up because they are protecting what they are protecting is something going on in the spine. And so maybe the disc is getting damaged, maybe there's a bulge that's getting real close to the nerve and the body's trying to prevent something from happening. But it's the pain that you're feeling is often muscular. And, uh, typically the discs themselves don't cause a whole lot of pain. And so we're dealing with muscle protection, potentially muscle overuse, muscle fatigue, irritation, inflammation. And often that's related to the way that we are using our body, the way that we relate to our body. And we often overuse our back muscles and underuse our core. And so in that sense, my recommendation to you is to follow the program as is, follow the progression as is, and maybe double down on your commitment to the program and to your body. But if I were to pick out anything from the program that I would recommend, it would be module one and two. It always makes sense and is can be extremely beneficial to go back to the basics when you have a setback. Also, I've done a stream on setbacks and how to navigate them in the past. So module one and module two and Frank, usually people or students have a, you know, module one is the back anchor. Module two is the front anchors. Usually students favor one or the other. They're better at one than the other and one is more difficult. So like for example, the back anchor might be easier and more natural feeling to you and the front anchors might be more challenging. So that typically tells me when there's a bit of an imbalance that you should focus more on the one that is more challenging and don't just gravitate to the one that's easier and feels like it takes less effort and is more natural. That is something you can do in the beginning, right after the flare up, but it seems like you're past that point. And so we want to go back to the basics and really master the basics, and especially master the area that you need improvement on. So pick the one for you. Is it the front anchors or the back anchor and build up the one that you think you need more improvement on and then start to apply that because that's usually related to the imbalance in your movement. So if we're talking about kyphosis, like what we did earlier in the stream, the front anchors and the front anchor challenges are what we would use to learn how to develop motor control over those muscles and to reverse it. But I don't know in your case which one it is, but definitely recommend go back to the basics and double down on them because I do believe this stuff works. And often times when someone is struggling, it's, I'd say most often because they've gotten past the beginning point in the program and they didn't quite get a full grasp on those initial things. And I'm just seeing right now, Frank, that you showed up in the chat. And so I just saw this. Let me read what you say, says I'm getting a new MRI Tuesday. I should mention I also have very tight hips due to f a I and torn labrum. I know there are tons of people walking around with findings on MRI with no symptoms, and autopsies have shown that. Yeah, so f a I and a torn labrum. I'm assuming the labrum in the hip is going to be a factor. But I will say, Frank, that the same things that are going to help your lower back are also going to help the F a I. And because those are correlated signs and symptoms from the same underlying monster that we deal with this predictable pattern. And so I can get into the science of it, but basically the femur, the head of the femur will slide forward in the joint and as part of the predictable pattern, and when it slides forward in the joint, it will impinge on the pelvis. And so by doing these exercises that bring our body back into balance, we can actually push that femur farther back into the socket and bring it out of the way from impinging on the labrum, or, you know, really what that is. The labrum tear and the FAI are very related. And so the bridge, as long as you're doing it in a way that is not overextending and compensating where the extension goes into your hips or goes into your lower back, but you keep that motion going into your hips. The bridge is something I would recommend as well, knowing what I know now about your hips, this just gives me more information. And so yeah, overall advice, Frank, is to, you know, you're going to get an another MRI, you'll be able to compare and show changes and check out the live stream on on. It's called imaging. Is it good or bad for back pain? And I highly recommend it. I think it's one of the best live streams. I've done very heavily research based, and it can talk about just how the psychology of seeing the damage and having it told to you in detail, a very sharp detail and diagnosed can have an impact on the way that you move your body and something called fear avoidance behavior. And so we just don't want to let it have that negative impact on us. We can get the imaging to get the benefits from the imaging without that negative impact that often comes with it. So in that stream, I talk about staying strong, believing that your body is strong because that has a big impact on the way you move your body. So a lot to say here. You are very welcome, Frank. And stick with it. Take some inspiration from Sheri. And, you know, go at your own pace. And stick with the protocol. All right. Let's get into the next question here. This one is coming through from Joe Tina posted in the Anchor Triad lesson. Joe, Tina says this actually feels better to me than floor anchor. Floor exercise. I think she means front anchor floor exercise and makes more sense to my body when doing them together. My back tends to be an extension versus kyphosis. And so this is one of those comments where I talked about kyphosis and helped determine the theme of today's livestream. And so in case she is saying that her spine doesn't have so much of this natural upper back forward curvature, and she naturally has more of a straight spine, doesn't curl forward as much as the natural spine. And so it's, you know, there are different names that you can call it, but some people call it flat back. Some people call it a reverse kyphosis, even though it's not actually reverse. They just call it that where it's more of just a straight spine. And so this will be very different than what you experience with most people in the predictable pattern where the kyphotic curve becomes exaggerated. And we have had people in the program that had lower back pain who went through the program and they had this reverse kyphosis and were able to really help themselves through the program, although it's largely dependent on how you modify the protocol to fit your body, because this is a more rare. Posture to have your upper back in an extended position or a backward bending position, rather than that forward curvature that most of us have. And so I just wanted to share this because it was kind of on topic and just to encourage you to, you know, you said that the anchor triad feels better. So do more of that, do more of what feels good, more of what's providing you benefit. And if there are things in the program that don't feel right because of your unique posture, then do less of them. And that's how you can modify, you know, the program, not only the program, but also your life to just do more of what works and what feels good and what helps and do less of those things that are that we know are not good for our bodies. If you do that every day, you make massive progress, even over one year of time span. Okay. next question or nope. Next comment is from Rigmor. He posted this in becoming aware of the pelvic tilt lesson. So as I am reviewing and will continue to review until the movements become natural to me. I am rewiring my brain to move in a different way using my core muscles. This is huge. I just wanted to share this comment because like, there's so many things that I love about this. First of all. Rigmor you say that you are reviewing and you will continue to review until the movements become natural. I believe you've been in the program for several weeks and this lesson, this is like a not even a lesson, but it's just a helpful video in the first week in module one. And so he's back there reviewing, and I wanted to encourage anyone else who's far along in the program to go back and review. I've never heard a student say it wasn't really helpful to them to go back to the beginning and review the basics, because you always pick up things that you weren't ready to receive before, because you didn't have that training where you spent hours working on your body awareness, and you learn things that we can't put into words when you do that. So to go back and review after you've developed that familiarity with your body and learn, you can pick up more things from these early videos. So Rigmor then goes on to say, I'm rewiring my brain. So I love that because that's what we're doing. We are making more changes to your brain in this program than your physical body, although they are connected. So there are changes to both, but that's really where the focus is. And finally, to move using my core muscles, that's the ultimate goal of the program core based movement. And if you can do that, your core will be strong and healthy no matter what you're doing. You don't have to do the exercises every day because you're picking up your, you know, leaves in the yard using your core. That is your core training. And that's what this is all about is movement retraining for life. So thank you for sharing Rigmor. We'll move on to the next question. Gloria says she posts this in the Tug of War article that I wrote about pelvic tilt. It says, is it normal to feel a strain behind the knee? I can't tell if I'm using my thigh muscles. My glutes and back feels hard, but not sure if I'm also still using my thigh muscles. Okay, so the strain behind the knee would not be what I consider your thigh muscles. I mean, back of the. Yeah, I guess so. Back of the thigh hamstring muscles. There are also there's a small muscle behind the knee that is not a hamstring. So that could be it. And there are also your inner thigh muscles. So it depends on what you're doing when you are feeling this, and I'm not sure it might be the bridge, I'm going to assume it's the bridge that you're talking about. You give a little background information, Gloria. You say, I have s shaped scoliosis. After doing this exercise, l felt one shoulder area feel sore and the muscle very tense muscle that the spine curves towards feels different. Okay. Different is good when you have, you know, long term, you know, issues and problems and potentially pain. If it's different and it is not pain, then that could potentially be a good thing. So embrace that. And if it feels good different, then do more of it. So let's get back to this knee thing with the bridge. If it's one knee then I will say no. Gloria, if it's just one knee where you're feeling strain, because typically we would want to feel things symmetrically. But since you have the scoliosis, you know, you have a side to side imbalance. We do address scoliosis later in the program, Gloria. So I believe not until module. I think it's phase three. So module nine is I think when we really start to. And that's because we have to develop a sense of front to back sagittal plane stability before we can address side to side imbalances or a twisting occurs if we don't have sagittal stability and we address side to side, usually a twisting can occur. So we want to develop that first. Then later in the program we will do some things that address scoliosis. And so I guess the answer to your question is no. But for scoliosis kind of yes, you are going to feel things on one side and the strain can be using your hamstrings or your adductors, your inner thigh muscles really heavily to do this. And that's okay. Just continue to focus on the initiation of the bridge where we do the back anchor progression and really activate your core. Make sure that's the primary muscle group you're using, and then add the legs in as another layer, not the primary mover. And so we're just going to gradually over time reduce the compensation of your legs, doing the majority of the work and have your and move your power source to your center. And so over time, you want to reduce that strain. And that's the best way I know to do it is to center your power towards your core. All right, let's move on to the next one. This is a comment and a question from Gilda in module two assessment. She says first day without tingling on my right leg. Thank you. That is amazing. That's awesome news, Gilda. Any time you can go from nerve impingement to no nerve impingement. You have done some miraculous progress in your body, made some amazing changes that are hard to do, and it's likely a sign that your body is getting back towards balance. So great job, first of all. And then in the front anchor's challenge. So this is in module three. You wrote a question not very clear on the warm up part. Is it just doing the front anchor's exercise on the floor. The warm up. Gilda, is it is defined in a few areas. So you might want to check your email or the lesson. But the warm up at this point in the program becomes back anchor awareness and progression, front anchor awareness and the bridge. Those are the three things. I believe the bridge is in there too. So every day to warm up you are doing the back anchor and the front anchor. Awareness and progressions. Just to connect to your core and familiarize yourself with that connection before going into the more complex challenges that we do in the daily routine. So that's what the warm up is front and back, anchor awareness and progressions. And I think the bridge is in there too. So let's move on to the next one. This is from Shane in the back anchor challenge. He asks, well, first he says, this makes my diastasis recti poke out a bit when I raise both legs. Should I just stick with the single leg version? Yeah, Shane, I think you're right about that. I recently had a question. It's probably in the very top of the comments. I responded to a question similar. It's not diastasis recti, but it's popping in the hip. And I would actually refer to that because I lay out a full progression. But I'll say it right here. But you can have the written version as well. What you want to do is be aware of your diastasis recti. And if anyone that's watching that doesn't know, it's kind of a splitting in the abdominal muscles. And so in that with that split, it can cause kind of tissues to poke out. And so we want to reduce that. And you have to have kind of a very calculated approach to abdominal strengthening because you don't want to overdo it and make it worse, but you don't want to overdo it and let those muscles get weak, which makes it worse. So you got to stay right in the middle. And so that's what I recommend for you. Shane is just kind of find that middle ground, which may be just the single leg, and get really confident with that and be aware of the Diastasis Recti. You can. It's easy to monitor because it's right there in front of you and keep your hand on it. And I would say, just go, you know, you can continue through the program while you're continuing to progress this one exercise, as you can do with every exercise and just progress this particular one very slowly get to the point where you feel extremely confident with the single leg raising. And then once you feel confident with that, you can progress that by going only to the next level, which is raising both legs, but maintaining them raised and not extending them out yet, but get really strong and confident with just maintaining your two legs in an elevated position and breathing. And may that may take a matter of weeks. And then you can start with once you get confident there, you do gentle, very subtle extensions of one leg at a time. And you know, I'm talking minute movements and I'm continuing to monitor the diastasis recti and then progress the amount that you extend. And so it's a wonderful strategy for really everyone to progress any exercise. So that's the strategy. And everyone's going to the thing that changes is that everyone's going to go at their own pace because of the fitness level that they're coming into the challenge with. So go at your own pace. That's huge. I see some activity in the chat. So Dolores says the pain is mostly in the morning, but intense enough. I am limiting activity again, feeling like it has to be related to my back. Okay, so let's talk about this. You feel like it has to be related to your back, so that means it might not be back pain. Is that what I can assume if it's not in your back but you're having pain that is related to your back. Anyway, mostly in the morning, intense enough. You're limiting activity again. Okay. I don't know enough details to give any specific advice, Dolores, but you know what you've done in the past that worked for you because you were an amazing success story and balance training. I believe you had twenty six years of back pain, and you got to the point where you were out of pain. And so if you can remember what it was that you did, you know, whether it's just going back through the program again completely or choosing those exercises that were the most beneficial to you? That's what I recommend. And definitely I'm going to recommend going back to the basics. So like I recommended for Frank and everyone, if you're having a setback. Module one and module two front anchors awareness. Back anchors awareness. Reconnect to those critical parts of your core. And then we can start building off of that. But you may just need to restrengthen the connection. Oh, okay. Pain in the hamstring where it meets the glute. Oh, okay. So you're having a proximal hamstring tendinitis probably. This is extremely common, Dolores. That's a tough one actually, because we use that muscle so much. It's kind of similar to back pain where, you know, with the back, you can't really immobilize it very well. So you got to learn how to use it with the pain and progress with the pain. And that's hard to do. And so it's going to be similar with the hamstring. Anything with tendonitis. Dolores. I've done an entire stream on tendonitis so you can check that out. But on the core balance training channel you can find one on tendinitis. I lay out the entire strategy for tendonitis, and it's going to take too long for me to say here, but ultimately it's very similar to the Diastasis Recti strategy, where you want to find that middle ground. No activity is going to be bad for tendonitis. Too much activity is going to be bad for tendonitis. And you got to find that middle ground and get the that tendon stronger. I mean, I'm going to assume it's tendonitis, Dolores, because the attachment of the hamstring to the pelvis is a very common place. We call it proximal hamstring tendinitis. Or you can even get a tear there, but it's going to be a kind of a long term strategy to gradually reduce the pain by listening to your body and learning the things that irritate it, and avoiding those things, and learning the things that you can do to strengthen it that don't irritate it too much. And so that might be something like the bridge where it's low impact and it's low amplitude, but you're certainly strengthening the muscle. And it may not be so. You also want to try to think about what may have caused it, what changes in your life and your activity did you make before and around the time that pain started coming on? So you can learn and listen to your body and make changes based on that learning. So let's get back to this was Shane. And yeah, so I've kind of answered that one. We're going to go ahead to the next question from Jeffrey. Posted in the Anchor Triad. Jeffrey says, I have L2 three, four spondylolisthesis and slight spina bifida and years ago had an L3 four disc Discectomy. Are there unique instructions for this history? That's a great question, Jeffrey. I think that's a question that everyone wants to ask. You know, it's natural to want to have the unique program tailored to you. And so my answer is no, but I can comment on your history. So L two three four is a lot of spondy. And so I'm going to say to follow the program in the same order, the same protocol, but we're going to kind of alter your intensity level and your frequency level. So with Spondy, all three of those levels, I guess it's actually two levels. L2 three and well, no, it's three levels L2 three, L4 Spondy. You're going to want to really learn to lock in your pelvis, as I demonstrated in the beginning of today's stream. Like if you're going to be looking up, you want to lock in your pelvis and get that extension through the upper parts of your spine. With anything that involves backward bending or extension, you're going to want to try and move that extension up into your thoracic spine and get more mobility there. You're already in the anchor triad lesson. So a lot of the training we've done already by this point. So you might want to review module three, which is really where we emphasize getting thoracic mobility in the backward bending direction. And just double or triple down on that triple down for each of the spondees that you have. And notice I'm focusing on the spondees more than the spina bifida or the discectomy. The spina bifida can be any number of things. It can mean a lot of different things. It's usually from birth, but maybe in some cases not. And then the diskectomy. It's just not going to change anything but the spondee protect that lower back from extension, get more extension in your thoracic and then just go, you know, with the intensity, turn it down with anything that is risky around getting extension in your lower back and really just slow it down and focus on moving that extension in. Like with the bridge, you want the extension to go in your hips, not the lower back with, uh, front anchors challenge with front anchors awareness, you want the extension to go into your, your upper front anchor into your upper back. So really work on that kyphosis if you have it. And that will take a ton of stress off of your lumbar lordosis, the opposite curve. So yeah, I lied. I do have unique instructions for you, Jeffrey, and I hope they help. And you're just going to want to protect those undies by getting more mobility above and below the lower back in the backward bending or the extension direction, and that will involve monitoring your intensity. And I said frequency, but what I meant was amplitude, the amplitude of your movement. You're going to want to turn it down and really focus on where the movement is going, not how much movement you're doing. And with the anchor triad, it's going to be the same. Those instructions apply to everything, but it also applies to Anchor Triad. I see a follow up from Dolores in the chat. You say, I think so as well. Is stretching long. Okay, because it's so tight. Thank you for your input. I'll find the other live stream on. Tendonitis is stretching long. Okay. What do you mean by long, Dolores? You want to stretch it because it's tight. Static stretching is not going to be helpful to you, Dolores. So don't do like the sitting hamstring. Stretch and pull your. Use your arms to pull yourself towards your feet. That is not going to be beneficial to you at all. And it may actually be the opposite. Static stretching in general is should be a thing of the past, and any stretching you're doing to lengthen the muscle should be active while the muscle is actively contracted. It can still be gentle, but yoga is the perfect example. If you want to stretch your hamstrings, do them in a yoga type way where you are controlling the movement with the hamstrings. Like, you know, if you're doing sun salutations and you come down for the, I forget the portion of what it's called, but it's like the swan dive. And then you come back up halfway and then back down and control that motion with the hamstrings and do it gently and lightly to match the where your tendonitis is at in its progress. So active. Stretching is good and okay in moderation, but not static. Stretching long holds Dolores o long holds. It's okay is hard to do. Active stretching with long holds, so only go as long as you can keep it active and under control and also in moderation. So yeah, don't go longer than you can keep that muscle actively participating in the stretch. So we got a comment from Michael in the breathing lesson. Oh, it is actually a question. Do you feel any improvement after this lesson. Oh no. That's my question. Sorry. I'm confused. We always ask that. Do you feel any improvement? And Michael says slight but hard to tell for sure. I wanted to comment on this because I just want to give you encouragement. Michael. That slight is The thing that we expect and that we want. The slight improvement or slight progress is how this entire program works. There's not going to be any major, you know, life changing type events that occur. And the way the program is designed is just to get slight, subtle progress day by day by day, and over a period of three months that can lead to major change, major benefits. And so I just want to let you know that slight is good and slow progress is the most sustainable kind of progress, and especially with something like breathing. If you're having that intention, the right intention, it's always going to be subtle, it's always going to be slight. And the changes that you feel are they accumulate over time, over days and weeks of practice. And so if you're already feeling something that's like really slight. That's great because some people don't feel anything on that first day that we're so ingrained into our breathing pattern that we've had for decades, that is hard to even feel anything on the first attempt. But if you stick with it like Sherry did and like Sherry does, those changes are inevitable to take place if you continue to have the right intention. The new intention long enough over time. That's how we make changes in our body. Okay. Next question from Nathan. And this one is looks like it's a two pager. So we're going to go through this. It says I'm currently in module seven and doing great. But posting this here since it's due to walking issue and holding connection in anchor Triad. Took a couple days to get the hang of it, then all of a sudden clicked and was doing great sometime last week. Anytime I connect an anchor triad while standing or walking, instantly get pain in my left shoulder and upper traps and into my neck. I will disconnect from my anchors, then reconnect and move my shoulders around to make sure I was not tensing up and getting and still get the pain. Okay, to make sure I was not tensing up. Okay. Pain also comes along with tingling along my neck and some places in my on my head, zooming from nerve impingement somewhere along my neck. AM I dealing with slight issue of kyphosis saw where one of the effects of kyphosis is front of pelvis rising. I'm going to read that again. Saw where one of effects of kyphosis is front of pelvis rising. Okay, if so, assuming connecting to anchors with pubic bone forward is fighting against me. So front of pelvis rising, I don't know about that. Could you tell me where you saw that? One of the effects of kyphosis is the front of your pelvis rising? Because at first sight, that doesn't make sense to me. I don't agree with that. There's a lot of information out there. Some of it's good, some of it's not so good, so I can't fully comment on it. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but at first sight I'm going to say, yeah, like in severe, very severe cases of kyphosis where your lumbar spine gets a reversed lordotic curve. You see this in like ninety year old people, like some ninety year old men will have their pelvis, like lifted up because their kyphosis is so bad, their abdominals have gotten so shortened. That's not a typical problem for people in younger age groups. So it's not going to be relevant to you most of the time with kyphosis, it's going to be related to it's going to be correlated with anterior pelvic tilt, which is where the front of your pelvis tucks back. And so but everyone's different and I don't know your exact posture, so anything is possible. I'm just going to say with the typical age group, I'm just going by your name that Nathan is not a name of people in their nineties. That name seems more recent. You're probably not that old. And in your most likely age group, it's not going to be a common connection to kyphosis with the pelvis, you know, posterior pelvic tilt like that. My recommendation to you. Let's see some background information from you. Nathan. I do a lot of computer IT work. Known for a long time that my upper traps were tight. Okay. On a positive note, in dealing with this, I took side photo of myself to see if I had forward head posture, which I don't. My ears line up over my shoulders, so that's a really good sign that you don't have kyphosis. Nathan. Taking a guess. I'm in for a lot of stretching. Till then, I'm sidelined from walking with my anchors connected. I'm supposed to start modulate tomorrow, where you said I will likely get a lot of benefits from the strong lateral weakness of my glutes. As I've noted a couple of times. Right. Glutes have odd strength and weakness. Can do. Sit to stands on my right leg very well, but walking. I feel like I'm a tire that is holding on by two of five lug nuts. Okay, let me read that again. That's a great analogy. Can do. Sit to stands on my right leg very well. But walking, I feel like I'm a tire that is holding on by two or five lug nuts. Taking a guess, gluteus medius is the source of weakness. You know a lot about the body. Nathan. Okay. You're forty and you know all about a lot about the body, So I did a stream recently on the curse of knowledge about the body and. And how when we know so much, it can actually get in the way of the tuning in. So don't forget to just feel, which doesn't require knowledge. And it does require. Like kind of just pure focus. So there's a lot you say a lot here and I have a lot to say. So we'll start from the beginning. We're going to go to the anchor triad. You say, you know, you started getting this nerve, this pain in your shoulders and traps, and it even became nerve pain. And then you relax and reset to make sure you're not tensing up. What I want to say about that is usually when there's pain like this, it's accumulated over time. And so it may be that there was something you were doing for the past couple of weeks, some change, and there's a lot of changes with movement retraining program that has built up to this. And just relaxing once and moving your shoulders around may not be enough time to let that accumulated, evolving change go away. So it might not be something. What I'm trying to say is it's not might not be something that you're doing in the instant that's causing it. Like the way that you're doing anchor triad, it may be more likely that it's something that has been happening over a period of weeks. If this is a brand new pain, is it a brand new pain or is it something you've experienced before? Back pain fix. Okay. Yeah, I've seen I've worked in geriatrics a lot and that's the only time I've ever seen those connected is from extremely tight abdominal muscles. Do you have extremely tight abdominal muscles? Nathan, I would be curious because that's really the only thing that could pull your pubic bone forward like that and, and cause kyphosis, but it sounds like you don't even have kyphosis. The theme of today's stream. Okay, so getting back to what I was saying, Nathan, I would say potentially lay off some of the things that you've been doing over the past week or two that you may feel could be leading to this with the nerve. It seems like it could be neck because nerve pain doesn't go, it doesn't go up the nerve. It only goes down towards distal away from your brain. And so if you're having nerve pain in your neck, then it's starting in your neck. The nerve can't be impinged in your shoulder and go up into your neck. There can be referred pain that goes up, but the referred pain isn't usually tingling. It's usually like aching or other types of pain, and your kidneys can refer to your lower back and certain parts of your body. You know, traditional Chinese medicine really focuses on referred pain, where you can push on one area and it can hurt another area that's referred pain, but it's not usually tingling electrical type pain. So I'm going to assume that you are experiencing some nerve impingement in your neck, which is exactly what you say. And the patient or the student's intuition is usually right. I usually find that. So trust your intuition on that. And so we're dealing with something in the neck. We can somewhat confirm that kyphosis does contribute to neck problems because if you are forward curved in your spine and you want to look forward. You have to backward bend your neck, which is a higher likelihood of impinging on a nerve. That's stenosis in a nutshell. So we're going to go to the next thing and just look for more clues. Lots of sitting. I assume you're sitting when you're doing it work. Upper traps are tight. Okay, this is a big clue. You don't really stretch your traps, your upper traps. I know that you're guessing that, but what we really want to do is provide the support to your shoulders and your neck so that your upper traps can let go. Yeah. So if you want to stretch this upper trap, you go away and rotate towards and you'll feel that stretch rotate. It sounds counterintuitive, but you're going to rotate your head towards the trap you want to stretch away and you'll really feel that stretch. So you can stretch them. But it's not something that I recommend and it's not usually that effective. But see how it feels. We're going to dig into this a little deeper, Nathan. Okay. Abdominals. The abdominals were weak until you started the program. Okay. So yeah, you are not going to fit the profile of what you saw on that Instagram channel, Nathan. But I'm glad you're doing your research. It's awesome. Most likely this neck and shoulder. You know, like I said, shoulder nerves can refer down, down the nerve. So the shoulder pain you're feeling is likely from the neck and you're feeling it also in the shoulder. There is a lot of double they call it double crush that happens in the neck and shoulder because there's a ton of nerves that come out the shoulder. It's called thoracic outlet syndrome. So there's a high likelihood there could be a second nerve impingement. When there's already a first, it increases the likelihood of a second. So, you know, I'm not going to diagnose you. I'm not going to say that I know what's going on. We're just going with probabilities here. And you don't have forward head posture. But there is a possibility that there was a bias in the photo. Maybe you were subtly correcting your posture for the photo and that when if somebody were to take a photo of you when you weren't paying attention, I'm going to read your last paragraph a little more strong lateral weakness in my glutes. Yeah, I remember you from the beginning of the program. I think it might be, I don't remember if it's module eight or module nine where you start the lateral training. Oh yes. Your glutes are one side is stronger. And so that is your right glute. You can do sit to stands but walking. Yeah. So that would be consistent glute mead would be would make it hard to walk. And that is called a trendelenberg, if you've ever heard of that. Let's see. We got some more posts in here. Wouldn't say it. So much nerve pain. Feel my shoulder and neck. Extremely tense up muscle of some sort. Oh, why did I get nerve pain out of this? It says tingling. It comes along with tingling along my neck and some places in my head. But the pain in your shoulder is not nerve type pain. It seems like it's more protective. Okay. And do you have any history of neck pain or injury? Because that's another reason that the upper traps can kind of like get in that tense protective mode, as if they're protecting an old injury or something like that. So hopefully, Nathan, just the beginning of the stream may have helped a little bit and letting you know that kyphosis is natural and you should have. Kyphosis is when it gets overexaggerated that it's a problem. So to answer your question directly, are you dealing with a slight issue of kyphosis? No, because kyphosis is good. But what I'm thinking is if you had a hyperkyphosis, which it doesn't seem like it's crazy obvious because you took that picture. It could be leading to issues in your neck. Let's see if you answered my question about muscle of some sort. No. Do you, Nathan, have a history of neck? Okay. No previous injury. Recently been going to upper cervical chiropractor. Well, yeah. This is the biggest clue of all. You've been going to an upper cervical chiropractor, Nathan. And if you've been getting adjustments to your cervical spine, well, this definitely is something that can affect your neck, right? You're getting hopefully not a thrust type manipulation, but even a less than a thrust like a grade four or more. You know, just like moderate levels of manipulation are impacting the discs, and the discs can touch nerves. And if there gets to be an injury to a disc, the muscles around it naturally just want to tense up and protect and prevent any further injury from happening. And it can cause other problems in the body, like what you might be experiencing. So I don't want to make any assumptions, Nathan, but I do want to just bring attention to that. You've been seeing a chiropractor, chiropractors do manipulation. You've been having manipulation to your cervical spine, and you are having a new problem that didn't exist before to your cervical spine. That is the most strongly correlated major change that you've made in your life. Your activity lifestyle that would affect your cervical spine is getting manipulations there. So I have no idea. But that's what we look for when we evaluate patients, is what changes in your life could be affecting that. And I would not normally think that the anchor triad would lead to that. But if it is, then I would say turn down the intensity. Like a lot and maybe take a week or two off from that. Anything that you think could be causing this. Take some time off from it and eliminate it as a possibility for causation. Because if you take it out of your life and it's and the problem continues, then we know it probably wasn't that. And so that's what I would do. This is going to be a process of, you know, diagnostic testing. And you can use exercises as tools for diagnosis as well. So you do them, you feel things, you don't do them, things change and you learn from that. And you have to do a lot of reflection, maybe even take a journal and use that as a way to reflect. Okay, so it says in chat, doctor lightly presses on my disk, my disk three to four times, no hard impact to do adjustment by the doctor. Okay, well that's good. I'm glad he's not doing any like cracking upper cervical generally wouldn't. Now that you mentioned this, I can. I recall that you said upper cervical. So okay, that's the best I got is, you know, you're going to have to do a process of elimination and, and reflection to see what changes could have brought this on and eliminate those changes and then reintroduce things that were not part of that cause and kind of like just take, go back a few weeks. You know, going back a few weeks is not a big deal in the larger span of a lifetime. So this could be called a setback. I did do an entire stream on the strategy of approaching a setback, and it's okay to go back. And I recommended you might even want to go back further to to the early modules and embrace the gains that you've made and try to eliminate this recent setback, whatever that could be. I'm going to move on. We've got one coming through from Denise. This is a question in the breathing lesson. It says when you say send your breath back and down. Is this done at inhaling or exhaling? Well, that's a great question, Denise. The back and down intention happens on the inhale. So you want to inhale your breath back and down. So if I exhale to start it's only to activate my abdominals, so a forceful exhale will help activate my abdominals, which will then help me to send the breath back, because they offer that wall of resistance so that the breath doesn't go out the front. So I'm going to exhale just to create that activation and then inhale down and back. And I can't do it without making me taller. I don't know if it's, uh, if I'm just doing that or what, but it just, I feel like I get taller when that happens. And that's the kind of the feeling you want to get. I've obviously had a lot of practice at this, but the exhale is again, an opportunity to maintain that pressure inside your abdomen by exhaling through contraction. Rib cage comes down abdominals contract and then inhale into that chamber and send it down and back. And so it's subtle, it's repetitive, and it's. Like the previous student said earlier with his comment, that is very slight. And so that's good. That's okay. We don't want to make any major changes to something. As deeply ingrained as breathing. So now we're moving on to the next one. From Ashley this is a comment Ashley says in the front anchors awareness. She says had a hard time understanding how far to push off on the upper front anchor. But when I realized I was compensating in my neck, I reset and tried again with less intensity. Surprised how little my muscles can handle pushing up. But reflecting on day two really helped me understand. I was trying to do too much. Can feel a huge difference between the intention of pushing off. With the pelvis and lifting up with the legs, my knees don't come up as far off the ground as I thought they would, but I'm sure they will. Once more I gain core strength. Thank you for sharing that, Ashley. And I want to comment more on it, but because of time and I'm running out of steam here, I'm going to move on to the next one. But I love the fact that you are tuning into your body and taking things slow and turning down the intensity when you have a challenge. That's exactly what I recommend. So we've got a question from Amelian. Sitting cross-legged, Amelian says, I can't sit upright. No rounded back without my hip flexors working. How can I be able to fully relax in this position? So this is a matter amelian of your body's posture as it's existed for a long time. There's nothing that I can say like, do this differently, change this, and you'll be able to do it because the way your body holds itself right now is probably is highly likely that it's just not conditioned to go into this position comfortably. And so we can modify the position by piling up some cushions or towels. You know, something firm, preferably so like towels or even a low stool. I have plenty of low stools around the house because I love sitting on that, that type of seat. And then try again with your butt elevated. And that will take a lot of pressure off of your hips, the hip rotation that's required to sit cross-legged and that will allow, uh, you know, everything goes up the chain. So that will then allow your spine to sit in a more neutral position without having to strain so much. There's a lot this is a complex way to sit. There's a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of joints that are required to go into, you know, primarily the hips are required to go into full external rotation. Full flexion and full abduction. That is an extreme position for the hips. And if they can't do that, if they can't get into enough of those rotations, then other parts of the body have to compensate. And that's going to have to come from your spine and your hip flexors. And then you're going to be off balance. So your hip flexors are going to have to pull really hard to keep you from falling backwards. So it's just going to be a matter of modifying the position. Amelian. And then also over time, gradually over a period of weeks and months, improving the muscular balance and mobility in your hips so that they can achieve this position. But yeah, not, it's not something you're going to be able to change overnight or even in one session to, to be able to make this happen. So modification and then gradual changing your musculature to be more in balance. And if this is a goal, you have to be able to sit like this. Then extra focus on hip mobility, which we get into later in the program in phase three. Module two assessment. Question from Charlie. And this is the last question of the day. And we're going to be wrapping up. So Charlie in module two says, do you think having an L4 L5 fusion makes any of this harder? So lumbar fusion in levels L4 five mean that the that level doesn't move. And so what that means is that it's not responsible for any major movements that the body does. It's just a subtle ability to rotate a little bit and just do that and combined all the levels of the spine. Doing that combine allows for a lot of movement. But Charlie, you're just going to be missing a little bit of movement. There's going to be a little bit of a restriction in that area. It's not going to change anything about the program, especially if the fusion was, you know, a long time ago. The bones are solidly fused and there's no worries there. I would just be maybe slightly extra aware that when you're doing the bridge, you want to focus on the extension going into your hips, not into your lower back. Anytime there's a fusion in the lumbar spine, it does. It does have a higher likelihood of other levels taking more movement, taking more stress because you're removing what was once a lot of movement, especially on a fused level, that level usually moved too much. And so you're taking that away. And so the levels above and below are going to have to compensate by doing more movement. So you really want to learn how to stabilize those other levels above and below, which would be L3 four and L5, S1. And you're going to do that through your core. You know, we're learning core stability in this program. So this program is perfect for you. And then we're going to get more mobility in your hips, which is the same thing I was saying in the last card. If you haven't noticed, there's a theme here. Hip mobility is great for the spine. So if you're doing the bridge, for example, make sure that extension, that backward bending is going into your hips and not your lumbar spine. And that kind of general theme is going to apply to all the movements we do in the program. It's not really going to change anything. It's going to make this subtly different to the point where you may not even notice. Charlie. But yeah, the hardest part about this program is tuning into your body and going at your own pace, and everyone has to do that. Everyone, no matter who you are, has to tune into your body and go at your own pace. In this program. And that's the hardest part. So it's not going to be any harder for you because you have to do those things regardless of having a fusion or not physically, you'll be able to do everything. And, and the other hardest part is the ten percent rule. Everyone seems to have trouble with that. So double down on that. Charlie. If you haven't, you have gotten to that lesson. So double down on the ten percent rule and just turn down the intensity and tune in even more to your body. I see something coming through from the chat from Nathan. And so that was the last slide, the last question. So we'll answer this. Nathan says, I'm still here and thanks for going in depth of what I have. I got to see my upper cervical doctor next week. I'll raise the concern to him. Well, you know, Nathan, when I was mentioning earlier manipulation and thrust, I was referring to a just a chiropractor, a chiropractor adjusting the cervical spine. Upper cervical chiropractor is a specialist. They are going to be more gentle because upper cervical you don't want to mess with. So it's a less so of a concern from me, but certainly having manipulation to that part of your body and also having a new problem there does raise a question if they're related, maybe they're not, but the question is warranted to be asked. And yeah, so I know I said a lot to you, but if I were to sum it up, it would be take this as a setback and go back and do a lot of reflection and even journaling to record what you are choosing to remove and the progress that you make and any, any other things you notice. If you if maybe you are not making progress. So you have to change what you remove and write all that stuff down so you can learn and reflect and you'll have that knowledge forever. So yeah, thank you for being here. And if you haven't already, hit that like button and help spread the word that there's a solution to back pain. And I'm not going to do a big conclusion, but the answer to the question of the stream is yes, kyphosis can lead to lower back pain and also neck pain. So if you have a hyper amount of kyphosis, too much forward curvature of the thoracic spine, it's going to put stress on the other parts of your spine and it is something you want to address. So as we walk away from this stream, go do something that's healthy for your body. And until next time, get down on the floor and connect to your core. Thank you everyone for being here and I will see you next time. Take care.
