The spine is the pillar of the body. It is composed of vertebrae, ligaments and spinal cord, and has the role of supporting the body and protecting the spinal cord and its nerve roots. Modern medicine believes that it is important to pay attention to the protection of the spine to promote physical health. In the four fitness qigong methods created by the National Sports Administration Management Center, emphasis is placed on the rotation and extension of the spine to drive the movement of the limbs and internal organs, thus achieving the purpose of fitness, disease prevention, prolonging life and education. This article intends to do some preliminary analysis of the basic composition of the human spine and the form of movement, the purpose and significance of spinal exercise and spinal exercise methods and essentials, in order to arouse great attention to the importance of exercise and protection of the spine.
First, the basic composition of the spine and the form of movement
The adult spine consists of 26 vertebrae, which are connected to each other by intervertebral discs, ligaments and muscle groups. The reason why the spine can move freely within a certain range is the contraction and extension of many muscle groups and ligaments near the spine, as well as the movement of the intervertebral discs and changes in the position of the nucleus pulposus to achieve. Therefore, when the spine is bent forward, the nucleus pulposus is squeezed to the rear, the spinal cord becomes elongated, and the tension of the interspinous and supraspinous ligaments increases; when the spine is tilted backward, the nucleus pulposus is squeezed to the front, the pressure on the small joints of the vertebral body increases, the tension of the anterior longitudinal ligaments increases, and the interspinous and supraspinous ligaments become relaxed; when the spine is bent sideways, the weight on the small joints on the same side increases, and the small joints, joint capsule and ligaments on the opposite side are under tension. When the spine is rotated, the tension of all ligaments will increase. The following is a further analysis of the composition of the spine and its forms of motion from both anatomy and movement.
(a) Anatomical posture, orientation, axis and surface of the human body
Understanding the anatomical posture, orientation, axis and surface of the human body these basic general knowledge, for understanding and mastering the form of spinal movement and its exercise methods have important significance.
Anatomical posture: the body is upright, both arms are naturally down, palms forward, both feet together, toes forward, eyes forward and flat.
Orientation: near the head for the top, near the feet for the bottom; near the front and back of the trunk in the middle plane for the inside, and vice versa for the outside.
Axis: Vertical axis is the axis perpendicular to the ground through the body from top to bottom; sagittal axis is the axis perpendicular to the vertical axis in the front and back direction; coronal axis (also called frontal axis) is the axis perpendicular to both axes in the left and right direction.
The horizontal plane is the plane parallel to the ground; the sagittal plane is the plane that divides the body into left and right parts through the body’s anterior and posterior directions; the coronal plane (also called frontal plane) is the plane that divides the body into anterior and posterior parts through the body’s left and right directions.
(B) the basic movement of the spine
Various movements of the human body, such as pitch, tilt, flexion, extension, folding, opening, closing, rotation, etc., in fact, there are only four kinds of performance on the spine, namely flexion, extension, lateral flexion, gyration. Any human movement, including martial arts movements, dance movements, traditional sports and health movements, is a combination of the four basic movements of the spine and upper and lower limb movements, combined with the different body postures of standing, sitting and lying, which constitute the entire human movement. It is important to understand and master the four basic movements of the spine, because they are the basic movements of the spine, no matter how complex the spinal movements can be broken down into these four basic movements.
Flexion: is the movement of the spine in the sagittal plane with the coronal axis as the axis of rotation, bending forward from the anatomical position or returning to the anatomical position from retroflexion and continuing to bend forward.
Extension: is the movement of the spine in the sagittal plane with the coronal axis as the axis of rotation, bending backward from the anatomical posture or returning from forward flexion to the anatomical posture and continuing to bend backward.
Lateral flexion: is the movement of the spine with the sagittal axis as the axis of rotation, bending to the left or right in the coronal plane.
Gyration: is the vertical axis of the spine as the axis of rotation, in the horizontal plane from the anatomical posture to the left or right after, or from the back to return to the anatomical posture of movement.
Second, the purpose and significance of spinal exercise
Modern medicine believes that all activities of the human body are directed by the nervous system, which has a close relationship with the spine. The spinal cord, which is an important part of the central nervous system, runs from end to end in the spinal canal in the middle of the spine. Therefore, the human nervous system has a very close relationship with the spine. A faulty spine and misaligned vertebrae can lead to a variety of diseases and even affect the health of the entire musculature.
The vegetative nerves, also known as autonomic nerves, are the nerves that innervate the internal organs, blood vessels, glands and other organs of the body. The vegetative nervous system and the spine have an inseparable and close relationship. The preganglionic neurons of the vegetative nerves are in the lateral and anterior horns of the spinal cord, and the postganglionic neurons are on both sides of the spine or in the front of the spine. It can be seen that the vegetative nervous system is tightly “tied” to the spine. Therefore, the health of the spine will have a direct impact on the vegetative nervous system. Abnormalities in the vertebrae, such as long spurs, small misalignments, herniated discs, or damage to the ligaments and muscles surrounding the spine, can affect the spinal cord and, in turn, the vegetative nervous system. For example, cervical spondylosis can cause dizziness, headache, tinnitus, abnormal blood pressure, and even vomiting; abnormal thoracic spine can cause heart disease, arteriosclerosis, pneumonia, and gastric disease; abnormal lumbar spine can cause lower limb numbness, diarrhea, liver disease, and anemia. It can be seen that the health of the spine is of great importance to human health.
From the point of view of traditional medicine in China, the spine movement can strengthen the lumbar muscles, the stretching and folding of the spine, pulling the Ren and Du chakras. The Governor Vessel, which has the role of supervising all the Yang meridians, runs through all the limbs and bones, it runs in the middle of the back, the sea of Yang Vessels, and the Ren Vessel runs in the middle of the abdomen, which is a fitness qigong? The “Tiger Pounce” movement in the Five Animal Play forms a back and forth stretching and folding movement of the spine, especially the lead waist forward, increasing the flexibility and extension of the joints of the spine, the purpose is to strengthen the exercise of the spine. In addition, the meridians circulate throughout the body, maintaining the normal function of the body, is the body’s general control system. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine says that the meridians play a role in the human body “to determine life and death, to deal with a hundred diseases”, and has “meridians, blood, through the yin and Yang, in order to glory in the body” said, emphasizing that the meridians, meridians throughout the body, is the body’s qi, blood and fluid running channels. It can be seen that both the Ren and Du veins run, and the meridians that are distributed on both sides of the spine or cross the spine and circulate throughout the body, all have a close relationship with the spine. If abnormalities occur in the spine, it will directly affect the passage of the meridians. If the meridians are not open, the Qi and blood will be stagnant, the Ying and Wei are not in harmony, and changes in the function of individual parts will eventually affect the whole body, and then produce disease. As you can see, it is very important to strengthen the exercise of the spine.
Spinal exercise is mainly through improving and balancing the strength of the muscles on both sides of the spine, improve the flexibility and coordination of the ligamentous tissues around the spine, improve blood circulation in the spine and its surrounding soft tissues, accelerate the excretion of metabolites, delay the aging of the spinal tissue structure, thereby preventing soft tissue lesions around the spine, prevent osteophytes, enhance the stability of the spine and vertebrae, in order to achieve the purpose of strong tendons and bones, through the joints.
Third, the spine exercise methods and essentials
Our ancient working people in the long-term practice of fighting disease, creating a number of effective spinal health exercise methods, including fitness qigong gong method and taijiquan exercises, is through a variety of stretching, spreading, pulling, pulling, turning movements, so that the spine and its surrounding meridians can be unblocked, so as to achieve the role of strengthening the body.
When exercising the spine, people tend to choose the exercise for their own physical condition, and some of them attach great importance to the exercise of the cervical spine. Therefore, this paper intends to analyze and introduce the basic exercises of the spine from two aspects: cervical spine and spine exercises, according to the three levels of single action, combined action and mixed action.
(A) cervical exercise of the basic exercises
When performing cervical spine exercise, the position of the two shoulders should be basically fixed.
1.Cervical spine single action
The so-called cervical spine single action refers to the running direction of the basic action when performing cervical spine exercise.
Cervical flexion: keep the body in a standing position, shut up, head down, jaw inward as close to the chest as possible, and look at the chest with both eyes; inhale with force, keep the cervical flexors tense, and relax the cervical flexors when exhaling. After several repetitions, resume the preparatory posture.
Cervical extension: keep the body in a standing position, shut up, raise the head, and look back up as far as possible; exert force when inhaling, keep the cervical spine extensors tense, and relax the cervical spine extensors when exhaling. After several repetitions, return to the preparatory posture. Cervical extension there is a movement, the action and the above requirements are basically the same, but the practice requires the mouth to be slightly open.
Cervical lateral flexion: head to the left (or right), eyes forward flat; inhalation cervical lateral flexor muscle force, exhale relaxation. After several repetitions, return to the preparatory posture.
Cervical spine gyration: head to the left (or right), eyes level to the same side and back. Inhale with force and exhale with relaxation. After several repetitions, return to the preparatory posture.
2.Cervical spine combination action
The so-called cervical spine combination action, is under reasonable conditions of movement, the basic action of flexion, extension, lateral flexion, gyration in the order of two or two combinations, the purpose is to pull different parts, so that the muscle ligaments that are rarely exercised, improve the coordination of the cervical spine, and then achieve the purpose of a full range of exercise on the cervical spine.
Cervical spine first flexion and then lateral flexion, first flexion and then gyration: first, on the basis of the preparatory posture of the cervical spine previously flexed, and then do to the left (or right) lateral flexion action, eyes look down. The upper movement remains unchanged, inhalation force, exhalation relaxation. After several repetitions, resume the preparatory posture. Next, on the basis of the preparatory posture cervical vertebrae previously flexed, and then do to the left (or right) gyratory action, eyes on the same side of the upper. The upper movement remains unchanged, inhale forcefully, exhale and relax. After several repetitions, resume the preparatory posture.
Cervical spine first extension and then lateral flexion, first extension and then gyration: the basic action as described above, but on the basis of the preparatory posture cervical spine first extension.
Lateral flexion of the cervical spine followed by flexion, lateral flexion followed by extension, lateral flexion followed by kyphosis: the cervical spine is first flexed laterally on the basis of the preparatory posture, and then flexed, or extended, or kyphotic movements are performed.
Cervical spine first gyration then flexion, first gyration then extension, first gyration then lateral flexion: cervical spine gyration on the basis of the preparatory posture, then flexion, extension, lateral flexion action.
3.Cervical spine mixed action
The so-called cervical spine mixed action, is to put a number of basic movements and combination of movements in a coherent exercise, the main purpose is to improve the coordination of the cervical spine.
Cervical spine ring turn: cervical spine ring turn is to connect the single action of the cervical spine for continuous exercise, there are two methods of ring turn to the left and ring turn to the right. When performing the rotation, pay attention to the cooperation between the eyes and the movement, look down when the cervical spine is flexed and look up when the cervical spine is stretched, and try to increase the amplitude of the rotation so that all the muscles involved in the rotation can be stretched to the maximum.
Cervical spine all-round movement: do all the cervical spine combination movements once without repetition or interruption. Breathe naturally, keep the frequency as constant as possible, and do it slowly at an even pace.
(B) the basic exercises of spinal exercise
Preparatory posture requires two feet apart, natural standing, the two hip joints basically do not move (the reason why it is called basic immobility is because the movement of the pelvis more or less with the spine movement). Spinal exercise includes the overall movement of the tail, waist, chest and neck, that is, the overall movement of the spine. When practicing, assume that the spine is a straight elastic cylinder, and that its axis of motion is the middle part of the spinal cylinder.
In addition, it is worth noting that the basic exercises in spinal exercise should always pay attention to the coccyx with the head and the direction of vision, and remind yourself that the head is the upper end of the spinal cylinder, the coccyx is the lower end of the spinal cylinder, the direction of vision is the accurate coordination of the head position of the collimator.
1.Single movement of the spine
Spinal flexion: from the preparatory posture, first deep inhalation; then, while exhaling, head down, jaw inward, eyes down to the tip of the nose, containing the chest, the two shoulders inward buckle; tuck the abdomen, converge hips, coccyx inward buckle, waist and back arched out; two small arms inward rotation together to the small abdomen in front of the relative, two palms outward; two knees slightly flexed. Then, when the spine flexed to can not flex, the entire waist back and abdominal muscles in the inhalation force to fully tense, relaxed when exhaling, repeat the exercise several times; finally, the two small arms while external rotation open, at the same time, lifting the head, loosening the waist, coccyx sinking, spine straight, two knees straight, return to the preparatory posture.
Spinal extension: from the preparatory posture, first deep exhalation; then, while inhaling deeply and uniformly, the coccyx is raised, the hips are turned backward, the abdomen is extended, the chest is raised, the two shoulder blades are close together, the head is raised, the waist is collapsed, the two arms are raised laterally and backward while externally rotating, the two palms are turned outward, and the two knees are gradually straightened. After that, inhale force, exhale relaxation, repeat the exercise several times. Finally, the two arms while internal rotation side retraction, head down, convergence of hips, abdomen, return to the preparatory posture.
Lateral spinal flexion: Starting from the preparatory posture, the upper body is bent to the left (or right) side, the hip joint position remains unchanged, and the coccyx cooperates with the side bending action to the same side of the top hip.
Spinal gyration: start from the preparatory posture, the rotation process of the two hip joints remain fixed; upper body to the left (or right) after the rotation, both eyes flat look away, try to turn backward; keep the upper motion posture unchanged, inhalation spinal gyrator muscle force, relaxation when exhaling, repeated practice several times; finally, exhale with relaxation rotary to the preparatory posture.
2, spinal combination action
Spine combination action and the above cervical combination action the same. Can be divided into the spine first flexion and then lateral flexion, first flexion and then gyration; first lateral flexion and then flexion, first lateral flexion and then extension, first lateral flexion and then gyration; first gyration and then flexion, first gyration and then extension, first gyration and then lateral flexion and several combinations of exercise methods. These movements have many similar movements in fitness qigong gong methods. Such as fitness qigong? Yi Jin Jing in the “pick the star for the bucket potential” is the spine first rotation and then flexion movements. To “left pick star for fighting style” as an example: body left is the spine left back, the right hand swing to the left hip joint outside of the “pick star” action, low eye hand, which is the spine flexion action. Therefore, when doing the “star picking” action, the coccyx should be forward, with the low head, so that the spine flexed. And fitness qigong? Five birds play in the “deer against” action is the first lateral flexion of the spine and then gyrate. To the left side of the “deer against” as an example: the left foot heel to the ground, and then the body weight while moving forward, the spine side of the left back, the action is almost over, the left side of the spine flexed.
3.Mixed spinal movements
Spine ring turn: spine ring turn is the result of a single action of the spine in succession, there are two methods of ring turn to the left and ring turn to the right. The main points are: first, imagine that the spine is a straight cylinder, the head is the upper end of the cylinder, the coccyx is the lower end of the cylinder; second, imagine that the spinal column circular rotation, the middle part of the spinal cylinder is fixed; third, on the basis of the above assumptions, the spine is assumed to be the head and coccyx as the endpoint of the line, let’s call it the spine line. Then, the entire route of the spinal column’s circular movement is the head and coccyx on the horizontal plane, synchronization, the same direction in the spine line above and below the midpoint of the two identical circles. These three essentials may seem too abstract at first, but after careful experience, you will feel that they are actually very graphic, and they visually depict the route of the circular motion of the spine. If you understand the above three hypotheses, you will fully master the fitness qigong? The Eight Duan Jin movements of “shaking the head and swinging the tail to remove the heart fire” have connotations. Take the action of “shaking from right to left” as an example, starting from the horse stance, the upper body leans to the right, when the spine line is straight; when looking down at the right foot, the spine is flexed, and the two ends of the imaginary spine line are bent to the right; when the head is shaken to the front of the body, the two ends of the imaginary spine line are bent to the front; when the head is shaken to the left, the imaginary spine line is bent to the When the head is raised, the coccyx is bent backwards and the imaginary spinal cord is bent backwards at the same time, so the image is called “shaking (lifting) the head and swinging (cocking) the tail”.
Full range of spinal movements: the same as the full range of cervical movements, the individual movements of the spine, combined movements, one by one, coherently done again.
Spinal crepitus: There are two kinds of crepitus, one is the coronal axis as the axis of rotation, crepitus in the sagittal plane, so called flexion and extension crepitus; the other is the sagittal axis as the axis of rotation, crepitus in the coronal plane, so called lateral flexion crepitus. Crepitus is the movement of each two vertebrae as the basic unit of movement, in essence, it is the result of refinement of the sequence and rhythm of spinal flexion, extension, lateral flexion and lateral movement.
The purpose of flexion peristalsis is to squeeze and release the intervertebral discs before and after the exercise. From the preparatory posture, the spine first natural bending, convergence of hips, abdominal, chest, head down; then, sink the crotch, coccyx from the front upward downward, backward arc, that is, backward hip; followed by collapse of the waist, and then spread the abdomen, then the chest, shoulder blades, and finally head up, until the spine try to stretch and pull. Then move up, first sink the crotch, the coccyx from the back upward downward forward arc; followed by loosening the waist, then the abdomen, and then the chest, shoulder buckle; finally cervical flexion, head down. Then return to the preparatory posture. Such as fitness qigong? Five Birds play in the “tiger pounce” action is the spine flexion and extension of a process of writhing.
Side flexion creep and flexion creep similar, but the coccyx to the side up, the head to the side flexion.
Through the above analysis of spinal exercise methods and movement elements, it can be seen that to improve the understanding of the mechanism of spinal movement, master the laws of spinal movement, to improve the quality of spinal exercise, enhance the exercise effect is of great importance.