Timing the Stretches

Hold all the spinal stretches for a full sixty seconds. This is done for two reasons: First, you need to hold the fascia in tension for a certain length of time to reshape it. Second, the spinal stretches actually create suction that draws water into the fascia and the spinal disk, and this takes the full sixty seconds to occur. If you can’t hold for an entire minute at the beginning, start at forty-five seconds, thirty, or even fifteen, and work up to sixty gradually.

The sixty-second total includes the time it takes you to settle into position, so start counting as soon as you begin getting into the stretch. Beginners need twenty to thirty seconds to do this, but don’t worry—it’s been factored in. As you gain experience, you lock into position within five to ten seconds, so the amount of actual therapeutic time increases.

There are a number of ways to keep time. I stretch next to a clock with a second hand and check it periodically. You can use a timer, or count inside your head. One patient told me that she counts her breaths.

“Flashing In and Out”

You’ll find that some spinal stretches are easy, and you can hold them for sixty seconds after only two or three sessions. Other stretches are difficult and take longer to master. The general principle is that the spinal stretches you find the hardest are the ones you need to work on the most. In fact, this is how you diagnose your own problem. Since each stretch releases a particular region of the spine that’s related to a specific part of the body, the difficulty of each stretch tells you whether there’s a problem in the general area it relates to. Then you can use the fascial stretches to find out which specific muscles in that part of the body are affected.

Most people can’t hold the spinal stretches for sixty seconds when they first try them—in fact, thirty seconds is a long time to hold at the beginning. I’ve discovered that dancers, women, and thin people in general can do the stretches more easily than older people, overweight people, those with a lot of injuries, and men. Men are generally less flexible than women and usually have a body type—especially a stocky or muscular build—that makes it harder to hold a stretch. When I started out, I couldn’t do the Low Back Stretch for more than twenty seconds, and it’s still challenging for me. For people who are not very flexible or have difficulty getting down on the floor, I’ve included easier versions of most of the stretches, which can be done on a chair or cushion until you develop the ability to do the regular versions.

Another important point: even once a stretch has become easy for you, do not expect yourself to hold it perfectly for the full sixty seconds. Your goal is to maintain each piece of the position throughout that minute, but the truth is that no one, other than a professional dancer, can really do this. Instead, once you’re in position, run your tape loop in your mind, continually scanning your body and adjusting each part in turn, maintaining the position to the maximum of your ability. I call this “flashing in and out.” Say your right foot relaxes instead of staying flexed. When it comes up on your tape loop, you notice this and flex that foot again. Expect to lose pieces of the stretch even as you strive to maintain as much of it as you can. Just keep scanning and recorrecting yourself. Time for making these changes is built into the sixty seconds.