McKenzie back extensions

Hi Saddleup

Good to hear that the sports tampons worked. Another piece of artillery in the arsenal, eh? Or should I say another rabbit to pull out of your bonnet when you need it?

There is a similar yoga pose to the position you describe, and that is not verbotten, so I cannot see why you shouldn't do this one. You would get similar back extension by hanging from a bar by both hands with your knees bent if necessary to allow your arms to take your weight, or by doing large wing-flapping movements while walking. This is because the lattimus dorsi muscles (which are joined to the thoracolumbar fascia at the bottom end and the top of the humerus at the top end) are extended when the arms are vertical. This pulls the coccyx up, tilts the sacrum and pelvis forwards, pinning the pelvic organs in place . (see p18 & p22 of STWW ed. 2). One good thing about this exercise you describe would be the good stretch that the rectus abdominus would get, especially good if you are prone to tucking your tummy in habitually.

Christine's philosophy on exercise is that prolapses manifest when we are vertical, and any exercises we do need to be done where possible in a vertical position where gravity is working in its correct orientation in relation to the body. Gravity is what makes WW posture stable, locking the sacrum down in a position where it kind of pins the pelvic organs against the lower, front abdominal wall. If you are holding your lower belly in there is no room up front for your bladder and uterus and they may not benefit from this pinning in place effect. Exercise that allows the maximum number of muscles to work together to do a particular movement affirms the natural design of the body and helps overall strength, rather than just one or two muscles, which keeps everything better balanced and distributes forces more evenly.

Just to clarify a bit about WW posture. The 'pronounced lumbar curve' is not something you set in place by tightening the back muscles. It *results from* tucking in the chin and straightening the middle and upper back to make the breasts more prominent, and relaxing the belly, so the pelvis tilts forwards automatically, just the same way that a big, full drink bottle sitting in a laundry bucket will fall to one side and tilt the bucket once you pick up the bucket by the handle. Try standing in front of a mirror sideways and play around with these elements of posture, checking your prolapses with each variation. Once you understand how this combination works together you will be able to figure out what sorts of movements will help your body, and which will work against your body. Making *all* the elements of your posture work together for you is the same principle of exercising the *whole* body. It is one body so you need to use it as one body, not as a collection of parts. eg you can replace spark plugs in a car as much as you like but it won't help your car to start better if the battery is on the way out, or there is a hole in the fuel tank.

This has been a bit of a random ramble but I hope it clarifies some things for you.

Cheers

Louise

I'm with louise, I think the mckenzie extensions are ok
although, after a few months of WW posture, I doubt they will be necessary

Hi Saddleup

I hope you don't think I'm harping on too much about this, but to get the recovery benefits of WW posture we all seem to need to make WW posture *the* new way to carry/wear the body. Using it just while exercising is greatly limiting the benefit you are getting from it. WW posture is not 'just another exercise'. It is a new way of being. Once you get used to it, which may take some effort and time, it is something you can use to help you to do *anything* you want to do in a way which allows your body to support you pelvic organs as it was designed to do. You may even be able to go back to doing things that you have found your prolapses stopping you from doing in the past.

The more you can use it each 24 hours, the faster you will see results. It works. You may experience setbacks along the way. Some will be as a result of your own misadventure (and you will recover from those in a few days) but some seem to be because your internal structures are repositioning themselves back to where they should have been all along.

As an example of this, about 18 months ago my cervix was quite near the introitus and hung crookedly in my vagina, like the supports on one side were damaged. It would chaff just inside my vagina on one side. I went through a period of time when I was doing quite heavy physical labour (albeit carefully and slowly and all in WW posture), demolishing a pergola and moving junk around in preparation for some building at our home. After a couple of weeks of this I could feel my cervix was right at the introitus, but had straightened up. I eased up on the heavy labour and it ultimately went back up a bit. Since then it has risen considerably, and is now sometimes barely reachable during the day. Yes, I can still make my cervix peek out if I tilt my pelvis backwards and bear down, but it goes straight back up again once I am back in posture. I don't do this exercise often, cos I figure it is not doing my pelvic supports any good. You may not experience the same degree of reversal of symptoms that I have but remember that I have taken four years to come this far, and WW posture is my new posture all the time. You can look forward to significant improvement but you will need to work through it, and your body will need to learn a different way of being. This can involve some pain and discomfort as it adjusts. It is not like learning to spin a basketball on your finger. It is more like learning a new dance, with involvement of the whole body and the brain learns new ways of movement as well. It just takes time for it to become anywhere near automatic or easy to maintain.

Once again I encourage you to use a full length mirror to examine how you stand and make adjustments to different parts of your body one at a time so you can experience how each adjustment feels. Once you know how each feels you can draw your body into that alignment whenever you notice that it is not right. Progress may be slow but you have the rest of your life to do it. :-)

Cheers

Louise