This week's topic is inspired by students questions over the week. As usual. And so the topic is what exercises can increase back pain. Or another way to ask it would be how can exercises aggravate or increase your back pain. So we're going to dive deep into that. We're going to talk about what aggravates the spine and the discs. And we're going to talk about, you know, how to navigate that. And so we have a lot to get through. And I'm going to kind of go quickly through it. So before we get started, I just do want to say that I think this is a really important topic. I think it's something that's not really talked about. It's not out there. The message that I'm going to relay to you today. And so I just want to emphasize that this I believe this can be really helpful to you if you can grasp the concept that I'm about to teach. So the first thing that I think that we should do when we ask the question, what exercises irritate the spine or what or increase back pain is start with a number of other questions. So the first question we want to ask is what actually aggravates the spine and the discs. And so we'll talk about three different things. The first thing that is probably more relevant to people that already have existing back pain is just excessive levels of vibration, friction force, you know, impact pressure, stuff like that. We can lump that, that all together and we'll call it repetitive trauma. So that would be, you know, more, more relevant to people that have an existing history of back pain, somebody that has a healthy spine and doesn't really have, you know, a history of back pain their spine could probably tolerate stuff like this. The discs are extremely resilient material, and so the spine is designed to be able to handle this. But if you have an existing problem and an imbalance that's been going on for a long time, then these things will irritate your back. And so examples of activities that would be, you know, excessive would be horseback riding, off roading in a vehicle. And another one that I've experienced personally is using a jackhammer. That kind of vibration is not good for the discs and the spine, especially if there's been something going on. So in my personal journey, I remember having a huge setback after using a jackhammer to break up a sidewalk. And so you can think of other activities like this as well. I wouldn't really recommend those vibrating plates that they use in some certain therapy clinics for other types of injuries, or you stand on those vibrating plates. I don't really recommend that for. You know, if you have degenerative disc disease, because that kind of vibration can increase the degeneration. So yeah, and friction is included in that as well. And so we'll talk more about that in a minute. And then excessive force would be, you know, if you have too much pressure on your spine or you, you know, maybe if you're overweight or just are carrying something really heavy object, that type of thing can irritate the spine as well. So that's number one. We'll get into the next. If you know me, this is really an important topic for me and I teach a lot about muscle imbalances. So poor alignment of the vertebrae of the discs of the spine in general. Another way you can say that is joint incongruency you want your joints to be congruent. That's how they operate the best. Number one, if your joints are out of alignment or incongruent, you're going to have increased friction no matter what you do. And so this I believe, is the most important topic for anybody when we're talking about what irritates the spine is the spine likes to be congruent. All joints like to be congruent. You know, even if it's mechanical, not even a biological joint. If you're talking about a, you know, engineering anything, you want your joints to be congruent. And so that is something that happens with muscle tension and imbalances, those muscles that are attaching to all your bones and joints, if they get out of balance, they pull those bones and joints out of alignment. And so much more education about that in the masterclass and lots of other my resources. So we will move on from that one. And the last point would be a lack of oxygen or nutrients can irritate the spine and the discs, so they are living tissues in the body. Even though you think of a bone as a static structure, it's alive. The discs are alive. They need nutrients and they get that from. Motion. Motion is lotion. And so this is important. Yet it's not as relevant to today's topic which is about exercise. So we're not going to talk deeply about this. But you know the problem is we're exercising and doing maybe too much or the wrong things. And that's irritating the spine. So that's not going to be a relevant topic for today. But I wanted to mention it because it is important. And so the next question I think that we need to ask ourselves, if you're asking what exercises irritate the spine? And then you say, you know, what are the things that irritate the spine? Well, we established that now what happens to the body? What happens in the body when the spine is irritated? What have you felt in your body that occurs when your spine gets aggravated, when your back gets irritated? Oh, I see holly. Inflammation, pressure pinched nerves. Great. Yes. And those are definite results of aggravating the spine. I see. Kelsey. Similar answer. Heavy pressure. Nerve pain in the foot. Definitely. We can point to the mechanical events that occur when the spine gets irritated. Another thing that happens that I'm going to be focusing on in this that is relevant to exercise is we get tension in our lower back muscles. They tense up, and so we feel muscle stiffness and tightness in the region of the lower back. Chris Manhart I feel tightness in the lower back. Occasional pain down the leg. Pinched nerve symptoms in the foot. Okay. Excellent. So I do believe and Chris, you kind of nailed the point I'm trying to make. I do believe one of the first things that the body does in response to aggravation or a potential danger or even damage is it tightens up. And so that is a very important thing to pay attention to. I see Sherry says pain and weakness. Pain is another immediate response just like the alarm system, right? And and along with that is the protection. So the alarm is stop doing whatever you're doing. And the next thing is the protection. I'm going to I'm going to tense up the muscles around the joint and I'm going to try to prevent the body is saying, I'm going to tense it up and try and prevent further damage from happening. And so that's to stiffen everything and to stop it from moving because it's that movement, it's that friction, it's that, you know, maybe impact or whatever that's causing the damage. We want to stop that from happening. So the body braces itself. Okay, Nathan, we got a lot of weakness and nerve related pain, and those are very important. And I want to recognize those are mechanical results of aggravation. And the way I'm asking this question is more like what is the body's response? What does the body do? And so all of your answers are correct, which is according to my question, is what happens? But if I change the question, what is the body's response? We can get things that are more what I'm looking for, which is we want the body wants to protect itself from further damage. That's the kind of the immediate response and that's the inflammation response. So when we do this, when we feel this. If we keep in mind, okay, the body is doing this for a reason. What is that reason? Why do the muscles tighten up? And I've already told you it's to protect the spine from further damage. This is what we want to keep in mind when we're doing exercises for the back. We want to think about what are the things that originally injured the back, okay. And what is the body doing? Why is the body tightening the muscles? Yes, muscle spasm. Cherie. And the reason is to protect the spine from further damage. I really believe in these points. And if you disagree, please speak up. But I believe that the muscles become tight to protect the spine from further damage. Then, if we have the response to these tight muscles of stretching them because it feels better than we are doing the opposite of what the body is. Goal is we are doing the opposite of what the body is trying to do, which is protect that area by stretching the muscles that are tightening up. We are undoing the protective mechanism, the body's own brace around the injured or potentially injured area. And also it requires movement to do that in order to stretch your lower back muscles. You are bending your spine forward, typically forward or sideways or twisting it. And those movements, in order to stretch those tight muscles are causing more friction and more force. And if the joints are out of alignment, if there's muscle imbalances that are existing, then there is even more levels of friction with incongruent joints. And so any exercise, if you have an aggravated irritated spine. Any exercise that is creating excessive movement in the spine is probably going to irritate it worse, and it may feel better for the muscles. That's the thing is, the muscles like movement, they like blood flow. They like to get that oxygen. And so you may feel better from doing the stretch in the moment of doing it. But what's happening deeper inside, underneath the muscles to the spine may be aggravating it more. And what we want to do instead of doing exercises that move the spine, is we want to try and stabilize the spine by providing more support, and not so much with the muscles that are already tensed up. Those muscles are already doing their job. But you know, the back muscles are the ones that typically tighten up, but there's two hundred and seventy degrees more area around the torso of muscles that are not tightened up as part of the protective mechanism. If we can stabilize those muscles and bring in a little support for the back muscles, then the tight back muscles may be able to let go. May feel safe to reduce the amount of tension that they are holding in order to try and protect. So that's a point I want to make. And this all kind of ties in to the cycle that we deal with. Because if you irritate your back by doing exercises or even it could be just activities of daily life. Then we have that protective mechanism of tightened muscles, which then leads to more imbalances. And then the cycle continues. And if we then go ahead and try and stretch these muscles again to try and get that relief of that muscle stretch relief, then once again, we're just putting ourselves through the cycle. I hope this lands for you. And so when we are asking ourselves what exercises should we do and what exercises should we avoid, we should ask ourselves, what is the body's goal? What is it trying to do? When it's tightening these muscles, it's trying to protect. This is a protective mechanism. And so if we're going to move the joints, we have to take into account what's causing the problem in the first place. And so in my opinion, the solution of what exercises to do is it's those exercises that help bring your body back towards balance. And so in the beginning, they have to be pretty gentle. They have to be pretty low intensity. And if they are exercises that are bending the spine or flexing the spine or extending the spine, and the body is trying to do the opposite of that by reducing the amount of movement in the spine through muscle tension, then we're not helping our cause. And so in the beginning, exercises that just restore balance. Activation exercises of the muscles on the front of the spine and the sides of the spine, and gradually increase the progression of those. And as the body, the muscles of the body get more balanced, then we can start doing more activities. Because like I mentioned earlier, if the spine is in alignment, it can handle a lot more friction, a lot more vibration, a lot more force. But if it's not in alignment, then just a little bit of friction could be very irritating. And so that's why it's got to be a gradual progression. But the general rule is, you know, if you have a lower back issue, the types of exercises that are going to irritate it are typically ones that are going to be doing the opposite of what those tight lower back muscles are trying to do, which is to brace the spine to prevent further damage, which has been probably caused by excessive or repetitive trauma through friction, vibration, force impact, whatever you want to call it. And underneath that, those physical forces, you know, this is physics is typically joint incongruency, poor alignment and stuff like that. We have polished my whole body hurts head to toe. I don't know why I have been having head tension and in my temples I also got TMJ. Muscle imbalances aren't only limited to the lower back, they extend throughout the entire body and they can extend up into the head and cause tension headaches. And there is a predictable pattern of full body muscle imbalances. You know, we're always dealing with the full body when we're dealing with chronic pain, trauma, acute trauma, a broken bone. We don't necessarily have to deal with the whole body, but when we're dealing with long standing issues, it extends through the entire body. And so we need to look at it that way. Tight neck muscles actually go all the way up. And because your neck muscles do go up and attach into your head, that can be a source of headaches. This is a common cause of tension, headaches, and TMJ. I've had TMJ in the past as well. So all of this relates. I remember when I had TMJ, and that was part of my realization that this is my lower back pain that I had been having for many years is related to the neck pain too, and the TMJ two. This is a full body issue. So Holly, yes, nerves are the, you know, one of the fastest reacting things. So that makes sense. That was your first symptom of the mechanical force, the mechanical damage. And that is part of the pain reaction. That's your alarm system. Something's wrong. You need to change something. And the body's response is the inflammation response, muscle tension and blood flow, warmth, swelling, stuff like that. That is the body's response. But yes, you will feel the nerves first. Chris. Thank you. That makes sense. And Sherry, wow. This is a new way to look at stretching in response to muscle tension. It really makes sense. Thank you. Thank you guys for the affirmation. I you know, it's hard for me to know because my mind has been diving into this for so many years. It's hard for me to know if I'm communicating properly sometimes. And I, I wanted this message to land. I really wanted it to land with you because it has the potential to have a major impact. If you can grasp that stretching tight muscles is undoing what the body is trying to do. They are tight for a reason, and this is in particular cases. In in some in other cases, you know, stretching can be very good. If it's general tightness from lack of movement or, you know, immobility, that's great. But if it's a response to aggravation and irritation, if it's the body's inflammation response or protective response, then I do not think it's a good idea to undo that response by stretching those muscles and potentially causing more of the repetitive trauma that was the original problem. And so that's probably, you know, as far as I want to go into this topic. And again, if you're asking yourself what exercises irritate the back, it's anything that can relate back to the things that irritate the back. So it's going to be, you know, dependent on your body and your situation. If you have severe muscle imbalances, then almost anything is going in exercise wise is going to irritate it, except those gentle exercises that are helping bring your body back towards balance, bring your joints back towards alignment and congruency. Those are the things that your body is going to go, yes, wow, I'm going to send you good feelings because you're doing the right thing. And the body does that do that? It sends good feelings just in the same way that it sends pain. And so you need to listen to those good feelings and do more of the things that cause those good feelings when with regards to rehabilitating your body. So that is the message for today. And we're going to go into the student Q&A portion and I'm going to switch screens here. If there's any other questions or anything about the topic, you can feel free to ask in the chat. We have a featured student this week. We are back to our normal schedule after being. I was out of town last week so featured student this week is Mark. He is an alumni of the program and Mark says. Just wanted to follow up on the Core Balance training program. Must be close to two years since I've gone through it. Still doing my bridges, dead bugs and planks. Thanks for sharing your passion and program. My sciatica has waned considerably and I am much stronger. All right Mark, so thank you for sharing. I actually don't know. We've had a few marks, of course, through the program and I don't know which mark this is, but from two years ago, that's pretty impressive. And I'm just glad to hear that you are still doing well, Mark. So if you happen to catch this stream, all the credit goes to you for continuing to do the things that you know to keep your body healthy and counterbalance the things like what I'm doing right now, which is sitting for hours. That's not very good for my spine. And so I, I still have to do things like, you know, my main one is probably the bridge. I don't really do much dead bug and plank, but I do other things that are potentially going to accomplish the same thing. Thank you Holly. I have learned so much from your course. Thank you so much for the gratitude and it's been great seeing you. You know, I you're showing up at most of the live streams and it's just been great seeing your progress and hearing about your progress. That's why I do this. So thank you, Holly, for showing up and for also being active and vocal. It's great to interact with the students. So we're going to move on to the questions for the week. And so this one is from Danny. There's two questions here and there in back to back lessons. I guess background awareness is day one of the program and back in progression is day three. So pretty close. So Danny says, am I supposed to use my stomach slash core area to pull it down and get that area of my back to touch the floor? I feel like I have to use my abs to do it and hold it, hoping I'm doing it correct. Yes. The answer is yes to that question. Danny. I don't really think that it requires much of me. I think it's a yes or no question. So I'm not going to go deep into an explanation. But yeah, we want to use your abdominal muscles to pull the rib cage down. And if you need help, if you need additional help to do that, you can bring in some other muscles, but ideally you have the strength in your abdominals to pull the rib cage down. And yes, touch the back of the rib cage to the floor. Yeah, that's what it is. When I say connect to the floor, I mean touch it to the floor. And when we are implementing the connection in the form of the push away, then we're, we're pushing it into the floor even further. And really that's what it means. So the bottom of the rib cage in the back is the back anchor. Make sure you're breathing. You say you hold it here, so don't hold your breath along with that. Okay, so next question is, is it okay if my lower back has felt achy since the back anchor? I think the flattening is just very foreign to my back since the disc issues. Okay, so this is on topic with today's stream. And so I do want to kind of go a little bit deeper into this question. We've had a couple people this week who have had increased back tightness, back tension, increased symptoms after doing the back anchor, which is the reason why the topic was what it is this week. So when you connect your back anchor, Danny, you are focused on the rib cage. And some people tend to focus on the lumbar spine because that's what this program is about. And so they excessively flatten the lower back or the lumbar spine into the floor and press the lumbar spine into the floor. We are not doing that. And we don't want to do that, because that is the type of movement and friction that we are trying to stabilize. So we're trying to create a brace around the lumbar spine with our muscles. And so this is just the very beginning of it. This is the very first connection. And so I just wanted to advise you to not really focus on flattening the lower back or smashing the lower back into the floor. It's not that's not this exercise. It's the above, that area of the spine. It's the bottom of the rib cage in the back that we are connecting to the floor. And if the lower back flattens a little bit and it will, it should, then that's okay. But that's not our focus. And if it flattens all the way, because that's what it has to do to get you to connect to the bottom of your rib cage, then that's okay too. Just let it go for the ride, but don't make it your focus to smash the lower back into the floor. That can cause irritation. And you know the muscles will tighten even more because that is stretching the lower back muscles. When you're opening up your lower back, you're lengthening those muscles and they are tight for a reason. So that's not our goal with the exercise. The goal is to just develop this neuromuscular connection from your brain to the muscles in your abdomen, your abdominal muscles, and to just feel what that connection feels like. It's an awareness exercise and the progression is going to further that. And so you will probably feel more. If you're feeling symptoms from the back. Anchor awareness, you'll probably feel increased intensity of those symptoms from the progression. And so you want to kind of use that as your guide in the progressions of these things. If you're having, if you've had disc issues, then you take it slow and there's no problem with that. We can, if we go back to the topic of the stream, it has to be gentle and subtle in the beginning, because if there's severe muscle imbalances going on, almost any movement will irritate a joint that is out of alignment. And so starting slow, starting subtle and gradually ramping up over a period of weeks and even months is what I know to be the solution. I see Guillermo showing up. Hello, Guillermo. Good to see you. And another comment from Holly. I found my trekking poles have really helped my posture shoulder blades, back lightning, the spine engaging the glutes, etc.. Yeah, that's a good point. And I like trekking poles because it kind of involves the full body. You know, crawling is something that we did as part of our human development and our core development. And it's more similar to crawling. You know, if you're involving your arms with extensions on them to hike or I don't know if you're just using it for walking, but, you know, trekking up a mountain or a hill or down a hill, I think that's a great thing. So thanks for sharing, Holly. So yeah, hopefully that answers your question, Danny. And so not focused on flattening the lower back, just the back anchor, bottom of rib cage in the back. And, you know, with the disk issues, as most of the people in this program have disk issues, you're not alone. Just go gradual. And that would be the cause of the achiness. If you go back and watch, the beginning of this stream is, you know, you're potentially stretching muscles that are tight for a reason. And so we want to kind of balance. You want to walk that line. We find that balance between moving towards muscular balance without excessively doing the thing that to the point where it can cause irritation. So that's low intensity in the beginning. Okay. We'll go on to the next question. This is from Brian in thoracic mobility with a foam roll. Brian says knee and wrist pain make this one hard. So I think this may have been posted in the front anchor's challenge. So this exercise Potentially it would hurt your wrists and knees and it could be modified so you could have some dumbbells on the floor. You know, just typical dumbbells that you can grip on to. And those can be placed on the floor and can be your grip. So your wrist can be in more neutral position rather than in the extended position. That would potentially stress the wrist ligaments. And with the knees you can put place pads under your knees. And so if you have a high level of sensitivity in those areas, you might have to just make some modifications in order to be able to do the exercise. This is a really important exercise. This is the exercise that closely mimics crawling, which is a major stage of human development of the core. And so I would not recommend skipping over this one because of the knee and wrist pain. I think I'm assuming you also have back pain as well. And so this is very important to get that in order. And so those modifications that I suggest can potentially be really helpful so that you can do this exercise and get the benefits to your core. And that might be able to overall in the long run, you know. You know, period of months reduce the overall sensitivity of the nerves in your body so that you can do things like kneel and be in the quadruped position. So hopefully that could be the ultimate outcome. Sarah Deaton, we have a question from Sarah where she says, this is confusing. So I'm going to check this out. I find this slightly confusing. It sounds like movement can be helpful for the spine, but also harmful depending on what you're doing. It seems like this could lead to fear based movement. Yeah, that's a really good point, Sarah. Thanks for bringing that up. Let's talk about that. So absolutely movement is helpful and it can also be harmful. So that's true. And so it's kind of dependent on a lot of factors. It's not only dependent on what you're doing, but it depends on the state of your body or the person's body that's doing those activities. And so it's nothing is black or white in this, you know, context. It's not it's not one hundred percent yes or one hundred percent no, because there's so many factors that this depends on. And fear based movement is a really big issue in the, in the back pain population. And so that this is a topic I also feel very passionate about and address in other, you know, weekly live streams and also YouTube videos. So I'm glad that you bring that up. It's like, what can I do that's not going to hurt me? And if I don't know what that is, then I'm going to do nothing, which is also bad for the spine. and. And that is probably a big reason why this is such a huge cycle that people fall into. And the solutions that we are doing actually are perpetuating the problem. And in my own personal experience, what I've found is if you can find something to do that is right. So one small thing, for example, the back anchor awareness or the breathing often feels good for people and you can build on that. It actually makes your body over a period of time. If you can build on that, it makes your body more tolerant to be able to do more things and more movement. And so, you know, it might allow you to then do the bridge without pain. And the bridge has massive potential to bring your body back into balance, which would make your body more resilient to even more activities. And so it's a tough place to be at the very bottom, at the rock bottom of lower back pain, because doing things hurt and doing nothing hurts. And I was there for years, probably seven or eight years, where I was like, you know, the only thing that feels good to me is going to physical therapy. And I went to physical therapy three times a week for most of those years. And it helped. It didn't solve my problem in the long run because I didn't learn a new relationship with my body. I was just being treated by someone with their hands and their modalities and also doing safe guided exercises. And so it wasn't until I learned how to operate my body in a healthier way, you know, in my daily life, not just at the gym, but doing yard work and doing daily life activities, and having my body be in a more balanced state. That it was what I felt like was a solution. And at that stage, then you are gradually developing the confidence to get out of this fear based movement cycle. It's a great point to bring up, Sarah. I'm glad you did, and it's important that I address it on today's stream is you can't do nothing. You have to do something and it's starting somewhere that you some activity that you know that doesn't hurt you and can potentially make you feel a little bit tiny bit better and then build on that. And for a lot of people that's walking, I do recommend, highly recommend walking. I've talked a lot about that in other streams. And so that could be a great place to start. But for some people, walking actually hurts. And so that's where it's most likely going to require getting down on the floor to use the floor as a source of alignment and learning a connection to the muscles. You know, to reactivate these muscles that have probably gone to sleep a long time ago. So thank you again, Sarah, and feel free to follow up if you have any more points or questions to make. So we got one from Raza coming through from Front Anchors Awareness part two. This is in module two, probably somewhere around day four of module two. Raza says I am lost about how I am supposed to feel with the front anchor exercises. I feel like I understand the back anchor lessons, but I'm having a hard time understanding the front anchors and how to push off. This is very understandable, Raza. It's one of the more abstract movements and just concepts in the entire program. Probably the most confusing concept of the entire program because we've gotten so far away from the days of tummy time when we were developing babies and infants, that it used to be something that we did every day as part of a, you know, pretty much a prescription from the doctor to new parents to make sure you do tummy time. And, you know, later in life, we get so far away from it, but that those movements feel so foreign to us. But it's actually equally as important for adults to be able to extend through the upper back, you know, the thoracic spine just as important as it is for babies and infants. But we don't get that that, you know, parental prescription that we did when we were, you know, those developing years. So I'll talk a little bit about that. Let me read your question. It says, should I be actively trying to raise my legs back? Or should this naturally happen when my core is properly engaged. If it's the latter, that's definitely not happening for me. That's a great share. I think probably a lot of students can relate to that. Let's go ahead and answer that. So there's going to be a kind of an element of both the, you know, ideal situation. Raza, is that you're pushing away, say, if we're doing the upper front anchor, you're pushing away from the bottom of your rib cage in the front to the point where it becomes a fulcrum. And so, you know, it's connected to the floor, and then you push away from it, just as you would push away from your hand, from the floor, you're pushing away from the front of the rib cage and it's going to something's going to move, something's going to give. And most likely what's going to happen is your shoulders and your, you know, upper torso are going to come off the floor because they are not as heavy as the thing on the other side of the fulcrum, which is the entire part of your body below your rib cage. And so that's what you do. And so, yeah, there is a kind of an intention of raising up to look around. If you can imagine yourself as a baby or an infant, but it's coming from the pushing away from the floor from that anchor point. And what's I think even harder for people is the lower front anchor, push away the pubic bone. And if you're, you know, am I trying to raise my legs or are they just kind of like floating up? And that's where I kind of say it's a combination of both. Ideally, you're pushing away from your pubic bone. It becomes a fulcrum. And if you push away hard enough, something's got to give. And usually what happens is the legs are the lighter end of the teeter totter, you know, on the fulcrum. The pubic bone being the fulcrum in the middle and the legs will elevate if you push away hard enough from it. And that push away comes from the abdominals and glutes working together to pull the pubic bone forward or push it forward into the floor. Now, if that's not happening for you, that's okay. At the least, what you would hope for is the legs just become a little lighter than maybe they're still on the floor, but they're unweighted a little bit. And so that is the same has the same effect and the same benefit as the if they were elevating off the floor in the beginning, it may potentially even more benefit because that's where you're at. And your hip flexors may be so tight that it's not allowing that elevation, because they're not only limited by the weight of the legs and the gravity, they're also limited by your hip mobility, your ability for your hips to backward bend or extend. And that's kind of what we're training with this exercise. And so they may just be really tight. And so at this point right now, just getting that push away intention and maybe getting the the legs to unweight or to become a little lighter, less pressure on the floor. That's extremely effective and is going to offer you tons of benefits. And then you will build on that. But what I don't recommend is that you try to just lift your legs without the thought put into having the intention of it coming from the pubic bone, push away. If you just try to lift your legs with no other intention, it's going to come probably from your lower back muscles and your glutes and your hamstrings, and it's going to be part of the compensatory pattern that's causing the problem. And so we're trying to retrain a new movement pattern in the body. And that's very foreign. It's very familiar, very awkward. And you know, we're trying to override the default and do something that the body hasn't done in a really long time. It's not used to doing, and it's always going to feel, you know, awkward for lack of a better term. So hopefully it helps explain it for you. And let's read your next question. It says on an unrelated note, any thoughts on sleeping with a pillow under your legs? Is that a good, bad or neutral when it comes to training your core? If you are having pain or discomfort sleeping, it's a great way to take the tension off your spine, the hip flexor tension off your spine. I recently just put out a live stream, you know, a weekly live stream. The entire topic was sleeping positions where I go in depth into putting pillows under the legs and the effect that it has. You know, if you're sleeping like that every night, even when you're not having symptoms, it's going to promote the muscle imbalances. But it depends on the situation, right? It's good to take the tension off your spine. If you are in a flare up or having, you know, symptoms or your hip flexors are really tight and sleeping on your back is potentially causing some excessive tension to your spine. Your lumbar spine. But that would be a situation where it's good, but it could be bad if you don't really need your legs elevated that high on pillows. And it's kind of promoting the tight hip flexors, the muscle imbalances by resting in a shortened position all night long. And then it could also be neutral. So again, it depends on the situation of where you're at. But the general rule is only use pillows if you need them and only pile them as high as you need them. And check out that stream. There's tons of information in there as well. Next question is from Sarah. Maybe it's the same Sarah that's here on the stream. We have posted in the thoracic mobility with a foam roll. It says, hi Doctor Ryan. I saw a big reduction in my symptoms early on in the program first couple of weeks, but feel like some days my symptoms creep back a bit. Despite being consistent with exercises and improving in terms of core anchor connections. Is this common something you've heard from other students? Trying to stay positive. So big reduction in the beginning is very common. So that definitely yes. Usually within the first week, if not the first two to three weeks, students will have a big reduction in symptoms if they stay consistent. Now with the second part of your question, you say symptoms creep back despite being consistent and improving in terms of core anchor and connections. This isn't something that I would say is common. It's not actually very common at all, but I wouldn't say that I haven't heard this before. I wouldn't say like it's unexpected or anything like that. There are so many factors that could be going into this, such as what are the things that you're doing outside of the fifteen or thirty minute routine of core balance training? You know, those other, you know, fifteen hours a day of waking hours. Have those changed at all? That's the first place we go in physical therapy with an evaluation is, you know, have you changed anything about your lifestyle? And if so, what new things, what new shoes? What new factors can we look at that may be responsible? And so that's the first question I would want to ask you. The rest of my life, the other fifteen hours of my day has stayed exactly the same. And I've gotten better with my core anchor connections. And my symptoms are starting to creep back. At that point, I would start to consider making some changes to the foundational connections. And maybe there is something that you're doing with the way that you're engaging your core with certain things in the exercises and outside of the exercises that could be contributing to this, that would be another factor is, you know, we maybe we got you over this hump and in order to get over the next hump, we need to kind of, we need to kind of fine tune the your connections and the way that you're connecting. And so if that's the situation, then a good opportunity for you would be to do the coaching hub because that's where students upload videos of themselves doing the exercises of the or the movements. And then I basically do a movement analysis through video and point out Room for improvement, and I rarely have a video submission where there isn't something significant that a student can work on to improve the connection. And it's not surprising because we can't see our own blind spots. We don't know what we should know until you're told. And so sometimes even students just seeing themselves after doing the recording, they can see it and they don't have to wait for me to do my movement analysis. They're like, yeah, I saw it. But you know, in other situations, it requires somebody else to point it out and go, yeah, clearly there is a disconnect happening here. And so there's always room for improvement, even for me. Room for improvement. And that's kind of where I would go with this is look inward, look at yourself and see what it is that could be improved, whether it's outside of core balance training in your normal daily life, what you're doing, or maybe it's what we're doing in core balance training. And, and so yeah, it's not unusual, it's not unexpected, but it's not, it's not a very normal thing that happens. So it's just a matter of looking into it. And so if you do the coaching hub, I'll happily give you some pointers. And then also do look at what you're doing outside of core balance training. Usually it's a factor. You know, we start to feel better, we start doing more things. We get a little more confident. And those new things that we're doing are new factors. And so how are we doing them and how are we connecting while doing them? So feel free to, you know, follow up with me in the coaching hub and I'll be happy to help. So we'll move on to the next one. The next one is from Jana posted in thoracic mobility on the foam roll. So this one was tough. This is a really tight area for me. I did as much as I could. Could I possibly break this up to where I could foam roll a few times a day as a standalone training? Absolutely. Jenna. Yes. I think it would be hard to do too much of this, especially for someone that has a really stiff upper back, which is most of us, to be honest. And there's not a whole lot of like damage you could do from over mobilizing the upper back. And it really transfer into every other activity you do in life to be able to be a little more open here and loosen up those joints in the thoracic spine really help the front anchors awareness progression challenge. And just like I think I did a whole stream on the importance of thoracic mobility, actually, it's really important. So yeah, break it up. Do more. And then if you want to, if you get really good at it and you want to progress it, we can talk about the mobility ball and you can get even deeper into your thoracic spine and get more mobility, which is really important for someone like me. As a surfer, you need to be able to pop up and get that mobility through that area of the spine. So that's why I have that tool to be able to pop up on a surfboard and not hurt my lower back. So next question. Hopefully that was a pretty simple one. So hopefully that answered it. From Troy, we are posting in the foundational concept breathing lesson. Okay, so this is Troy has been pretty vocal in the course. I think he's probably in week one or two, and we've been kind of going back and forth in the lesson comments. And so I have a lot of background information already. And so Troy, if you're watching this, I do remember who you are and remember what we've been going back and forth about in the comments. So just a quick couple quick questions, clarifications. Now that I know the back anchor or now that I feel and have the same, the sensation of where the back anchor should be. Is it safe to say that when I breathe with the intention of down and back, I'm breathing into this same area? That's a really great question, Troy. I would say actually, when we're breathing down and back, it's even lower. And that's the general answer. So you want to breathe into the tightness of the lower back and just get that gentle expansion of those muscles and get that gentle tension in the muscles in the front and the sides that will help send the breath there. That's the more important thing from the breathing is training that just subtle level of tension in the other muscles. You know, the three hundred and sixty degrees around the core, the lower back muscles already have enough tension in them typically, so they're going to get more of that expansion and slow down as as low as possible. Troy into the low back. And with that said, if you're in the back anchor position, it actually is something I've done in the past where I just imagine breathing into the back anchor because that's your connection, that's your focus, and it will actually help you kind of elevate it. Kind of you can feel your breath like you kind of like raise up off the floor a little bit. And you know, that's how you kind of know you're getting that three hundred and sixty degrees of expansion. You're getting that expansion in the back too. So I think it's more appropriate to do it. If your back anchor is connected to something like the floor or the back of a chair. But in general, if I'm just walking around, I find it most effective to breathe as low as possible. Hopefully that answers your question. Number two is it normal? After exhaling all my air and then while keeping my torso at the same level of tension to feel the entire lower torso cylinder expand upon inhale? Yes, that is normal. And that's great. That's what we want. You know, ultimately this should feel good. So my question to you, Troy, is does it feel good? Does it feel relieving? Does it feel decompressing? And if the answer is yes, then double down on that yes from me as well. That's the number one guide throughout this entire process is your body listening to your body and the communication that it's sending you through what you're doing. And then let that be your guide. And so to me, it sounds like you're doing it right. So let's read a little more into this. In fact, sometimes when I inhale with the focus down and back, I also feel decompression in the SI joints as well as in the front ab muscles just above the pubic bone. Are these sensations a good sign that I'm breathing correctly? Meaning will the down and back intention also possibly create these other sensations in these other lower locations? So I get I think I get your question, Troy, and I don't get this kind of question very often that mostly people are when I get feedback from them, they're feeling it in their lower back muscles and in their spine, even like they can feel decompression in their spine. That's typically what I feel. And the SI joints is another one. I'm like, well, that's pretty close in proximity. You know, there's going to be some Expansion in that area as well. And if you have SI joint instability or hypermobility, then those you might be a little hypersensitive in those ligaments to any stretching or expansion that goes into the back of your pelvis. So that that makes sense. I think you mentioned SI joint irritation earlier from the posterior tilting and the flattening of the lower back. So do give those, you know, a little bit of a break from that. And maybe that, you know, I'm not sure if the SI joint decompression is a good feeling for you or if it's kind of a iffy type feeling. If it's the iffy type feeling, I would say it might be left over from a little bit of irritation from before, but if it's a good feeling, then great. Yeah, I'll take it again. That's the that's the main guide in this entire process is the body's response and how it feels. You should feel good after doing these things in general. Even right after doing these things, you should feel better when you get up off the floor. After doing core balance training, you should feel like a better body. Your body should be feel improved. And you know, most ways that's what that's my personal experience. And so with regards to the ab muscles just above the pubic bone, this could be a kind of a feedback on just you trying to generate tension in those muscles and the breath still kind of going into them. And so it's kind of like, it's kind of like tug of war with those muscles, right? So you're trying to resist expansion. You're feeling it in those muscles. I'm not really, you know, I, I do feel the expansion in all of my abdominal muscles, but if it's in a specific spot, like front in the front, just above the pubic bone. I don't know, it may be an area where do you have a history, you know, of a injury, maybe an abdominal strain or something in that area. Maybe it's some scar tissue that you're feeling. I'm not sure. Let me read the question again. Are these sensations a good sign that I'm breathing correctly? I think it is because, you know, your intention is to breathe down and back, and you're feeling some sensations of tension in the muscles that are trying to send it back. So yeah, I think it is also possibly create these other sensations in these other lower locations. So it's kind of a complex question, really deep question. I hope I was able to answer it for you, Troy, that it seems like you're breathing correctly, just having that simple intention. That's kind of how we would break it down. To be as simple as possible is it just comes down to your intention and nothing else. If you're trying to over control how the how of this happening, that's where I would say you have room for improvement. We don't want to try and flex a certain muscle or contract, or engage a certain muscle, or even know the name of a muscle. We want to have that just pure intention. And the intention is above the action. And we just kind of want to stay there and go, okay, I'm not, I'm going to leave the action of how this happens up to the body's natural instincts. And I'm just going to only do the intention part. And that's hard for a lot of people. It's kind of letting go of the how. And so that's where it may seem to me like you could improve is just, you know, I'm not really sure if you're trying to control the muscles or flex the muscles is not clear. and you may be even doing what I'm saying already. So these sensations that you're feeling is worth they're worth listening to. They're your body talking to you. If they feel good, then keep going. And if they feel bad, then we need. That's at the point where we need to make a change. And so that's kind of an intuitive thing that you will only know. And if you let me know the good or the bad, then I can offer guidance like, well, this is not a good feeling. What do I do? Then we can go from there. So that's probably the best answer I can give to this point. And I think we have one more question. So we're going to move on. We got one from Margie, this question from Margie in module six day two. This is walk, walk and walk more. Uh oh. It's that name that's the subject of the email. Margie says, actually, I walk all day long at work. At first I was overdoing the anchor system. My ribs flared, etc. then my back would hurt and I found myself slumping. That felt better, I guess, because my body was used to it. I've since calmed down and I focus more subtly on trying to breathe more natural while walking. It's hard to do for me, but I'm getting there and my back hurts way less than that way now. Way less that way now. Finally. But if I'm doing other things, it's difficult to maintain anchor awareness for me. So I try to regroup, but it's hard. Okay, Margie. Well, no question here, but it sounds like the solution for you has been to just turn down the intensity of like, overdoing the anchor system and flexing those muscles, which is right in alignment with what this program is supposed to be. It's supposed to be kind of a natural. Integration is a very hard thing to do. Easier said than done. And it's one of the main things that I have to coach on, which is students wanting to get more benefits. So doing more and trying harder. And that being actually counterproductive because the trying harder engages the muscles in an unnatural way that are not really conducive to, to be integrated into your daily life. Not sustainable to be able to do all day long. For, you know, the sixteen hours a day that we are awake and using our bodies. And so it's probably going to be something that I coach on till, you know, the most common thing for as many years as I do this is turn it down. This is all day. This is every day. This is life. This is weeks, months, years of a strategy that we use. And so it may feel like you're not doing enough to turn down the intensity, but in the long run, it is the most sustainable way to do this. And so good on you, Margie, for figuring that out yourself. And I guess that message, I was just affirming what you're doing, that you're doing it right, and maybe helping educate other students. And this can be a good example to, to the others that this is effective. To turn down the intensity, it works better. You get more benefits from doing less. And it's the craziest, most counterintuitive thing. And I don't understand it, but that's the way that I've found it to be. And at the same time, use your own judgment, make your own decisions. If you don't agree with me, you can do your own research and do what you feel is best. So that's my probably my closing message. We are going to do a quick conclusion on the topic, which is what exercises are going to potentially make your back pain worse. And the general answer is, it's those exercises that are going to reproduce the things that caused the problem in the first place. So if it's going to be excessive friction on your spine, excessive vibration, excessive force, repetitive trauma, then that that is the cause of your problem, then those exercises are going to potentially be the things to irritate it. If you have muscle imbalances in your joints that are out of alignment, then most exercises are going to irritate it. If you have muscle tightness and stiffness in your lower back because your muscles are trying to protect your spine from further damage, then stretching those muscles is going to undo the body's natural response and potentially irritate it. And so these are, you know, not I don't like saying this, these are unfortunate things, but the, the best thing that you can do is gentle things that bring your body back into balance to bring the joints back into alignment. Walking is one of those things. Walking is a full body, healthy movement. Getting down on the floor and doing, you know, the stuff laid out in the program are those things, and you have to build on those things to build up your body's tolerance to be able to do more things. More resilience to the friction and the things that we like to do in our natural, in our daily life like activities that we consider fun, like playing sports. You can build up to be able to do those things in the future. But if the body is out of alignment, it might not be able to tolerate it right now. And the other point I really just wanted to drive across is that stretching tight muscles that are tight because they're protecting is potentially contributing to the cycle of the back pain problem. So that is an important message to, to consider for yourself and make your own opinion about potentially. It's controversial. I don't hear this message out there and I think it should be out there. You have Jenny. We have a question in the chat from Yevgeny. Good to see you here. Foam roller is it depends how you're using a foam roller. The typical use of a foam roller is on the soft tissues of the muscles. So, you know, I don't recommend foam rolling your lower back muscles almost. You know, I really don't recommend that for almost anybody. There's not a lot of support there. So in that case, yeah, it could be similar to stretching the lower back muscles. We don't need the foam roll pressure on our lower back in that direction would be the posterior to anterior direction on the lower back. That's what we already have too much. Typically most people have too much of that lumbar lordosis. There's maybe a twenty percent of the population that don't. But the majority of us in this chronic lower back pain population should not need more like force on the lower back in that direction. So in that case, it would be a similar effect as stretching, as loosening those lower back muscles that are tight for a reason, and also putting a mechanical pressure on the spine in kind of the wrong direction. You know, the right direction would be where we lay on the pillow under your belly, and it pushes your spine anterior to posterior. And that's kind of opens up the back of the spine and makes it feel better. So we'll talk about using a foam roller in a different way. Where is where like in the program, how I teach thoracic mobility on the foam roll. That is not the same as stretching because we're not treating the muscles there, we're treating the joints, we're adding mobility to the joints, and especially stiff joints that need to be mobilized to take the pressure off the lumbar spine. So in that case, the the foam roll is totally fine. Okay. Not going to be considered this like the same as stretching. I do recommend foam roll mobility of the thoracic spine. And you can foam roll your quads and your leg muscles. Those aren't really supporting, you know, they're not that part of that cylinder that supports the spine. So loosening those up is not going to have the effect of reducing support for the spine. Holly, we got something in the chat here. It says sharing so much in case what I do helps anyone. But the breathing is something I do every night as a relaxation technique. I've tried finding ways to incorporate all these things into my daily life. That is exactly what I want to hear. Thank you for sharing, Holly, and I hope that inspires other people to do the same. I, I do the breathing more than anything else, and it's kind of like pretty much incorporated into my natural breathing. But if I have done some things like what I've done lately, which is sit on an airplane across the country multiple times, excessive sitting, excessive car rides that are not good for my body, I still have to do things to counterbalance all these abuses to my body, and I will go to the breathing. And it's been, you know, incredibly effective for me over many years. And I even got down on the floor and did core balance training recently, and it's just felt so good. I was like, why don't I do this more? So but yeah, a lot of abuse on my body with all the sitting and traveling lately. So resorting to the things that I preach and they're working for me. So thanks for sharing. Thank you Yevgeny. Thank you everyone for showing up. Always glad to see you here. And we will be back again next week with another topic. And until then, go do something healthy for your body. That means going for a walk like what I'm about to go do. Then do that. And if not, find some time to get down on the floor and connect to your core. Thank you guys and see you next week.
