Spine Stretch Safety Precaution question

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  • #128177

    Anonymous
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    In the book “Opening the Energy GAtes of your Body”, Bruce warns not to do more than 3 spine stretches in a row, and not to repeat that exercise before 8 hours have elapsed.
    In the video about the Bagua Warmup Forward Spine Stretch, similarly, he very strongly insists not to do it more than 3 times in a row.

    My question is :
    Are both types of spine stretches similar enough that the safety precaution (“maximum = 3”) means that if I do 3 repetitions of the Energy Gates Spine Stretch before a Bagua practice, I should refrain from doing the BaGua Forward Spine Stretch (or not more than 2 of Energy gates and 1 of Bagua…)?
    Or are they different enough that it’s possible to saely do 3 of each (so 3 3=6) on a given day ?

    For safety’s sake, I tend to consider that they are the same and that 3 of any type of spine stretch is the max. What do you guys know about this question ?

    3 days ago I followed along while I was watching the video and must have done the forward stretch at least 6 times BEFORE it got to the part where Bruce says “3 is the max”. On the moment I felt OK, but a dozen minutes later I got CRAZY sensations in my lower back… And my head and cervicals hurt quite a lot today…

    #130439

    Anonymous
    Guest

    “but a dozen minutes later I got CRAZY sensations in my lower back… And my head and cervicals hurt quite a lot today…”
    …I’m sorry to hear that Erwan, i was worried about watching the videos ahead of my practice but i think now i’m going to go ahead and at least give them a look first.
    Patrick

    #130440

    Anonymous
    Guest

    So is the maximum safe number of spine stretches of any kind 3 or 3 3=6 ?

    #130441

    Anonymous
    Guest

    You’ve got to go easy on these spine exercises. Here’s my two cents on the difference:

    Energy Gates Spine Stretch is initially done as a way to gain better feeling awareness of your spine, and you usually start working on pretty big segments of the back (3,4,5 vertebrae at a time) until you have good control over the articulation. We often refer to the early versions as “back releases” instead of “spine stretches” for this reason — you have to progressively release the layers of muscle closer and closer to the actual spine to get this to work. Your Energy Gates Spine Stretch will pretty much always be segmented like this though. If it feels like a “stretch” in any typical sense, you’re pulling way too much, from a particular spot and missing the piece-by-piece articulation. For example, when people treat it like a typical toe-touch, they move almost exclusively from the lumbar spine and have next to no movement in the upper thoracic or cervical spine. They run out of slack.

    The challenge of the EG Spine Stretch is that you can go very slowly when you do it to develop sensitivity, but the slower you go, the more it works your nervous system. It’s a deceptively powerful exercise.

    The Ba Gua version isn’t segmented quite the same way. It should have more of a lengthening feel to whole spine at once, the whole time you move. Again, though, don’t aim for a “stretch” feel. If you feel that, I can almost guarantee you’re working too hard. It’s much more of an even, lengthening feel, which is smoother than a sharp stretch.

    Those are my thoughts on the limits of individual repetitions of these exercises. My favorite time to do the EG Spine Stretch is at the end of a training session. It’s like one final way to clear anything and relax my nervous system. The only time I do several repetitions of it in a row is when I’m going through an Energy Gates training session and I’m working on some aspect of the exercise.

    So, maybe try the ba gua version at the beginning and a gentle energy gates one at the end of your session?

    Hope that helps,
    Dan

    #130442

    Anonymous
    Guest

    When you stretch the spine in the way we do here, you are decompressing the 24 vertebrae and easily gain 1 to 3 inches of length in the vertebral column, in one stretch. Change in cerebrospinal fluid is going to occur. In this change alone the cerebrospinal pressure reduces because the space increased. If you do more than your body is ready for, it can be the equivalent of a spinal tap. The usual symptom results in severe headache. To do more than the MAX amount is pushing the envelope of the 70% rule and increasing the chance of serious injury.
    These stretches also increase the nervous activity and impulse running up and down the spine, to the brain and the body. By overdoing the stretches, the stimuli to the brain can be so much more than can be neurologically handled that you run the risk of damaging brain centers.
    Please be safe. 3 should be the max. The 70% rule would say 2 for novices and intermediates.
    Hopefully this helps.
    Practice well.
    Steve

    #130443

    Anonymous
    Guest

    The critical point is make sure a person doesn’t overstrain this nervous system by either overly activating the spinal cord or overstraining the anatomy connected to the spine.

    Given than one persons comfort zone ( say 3 and 3) is another’s overstrain, I would keep it to a total of three combined or less as is suggested above to just 1 or 2.

    Bruce

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