An exercise inspired from the wrestling world, “The Wrestlers
Bridge” has helped me lifting the sternum and improve the
upper back tremendously during the past weeks. It was a long time since I got
this excited. I almost lost my motivation by the end of 2014, but my struggle
against PE keeps on. I have modified the exercise for PE and the reason is that
it is necessary to keep the muscles in the upper back activated immediately
from start.
I will give an extremely sharp warning for this exercise.
This exercise needs extreme control and precision. But it is not as dangerous
as it looks like.
It is very important to not put all of the weight on the
hands and lift the head from the ground. This might have the opposite effect
(compression of the upper back). It is very important to keep a constant but
not so heavy pressure on the back/top of the head. Most of the weight ( 90 %)
should be on the hands (10 % on the back/top of the head).
1.
Make sure that the surface is absolutely
horizontal and not slippery.
2.
Don’t use shoes, gloves or socks.
3.
Take your time and watch some videos on YouTube.
4.
Warm up by taking a walk before doing it.
5.
Don’t make many reps. It is not an ordinary repetitive
exercise (3-5 reps is enough).
Search on YouTube for “Wrestlers Bridge” but remember that I
have modified it to fit high mobility in the thorax. And I will call this
exercise “Modified Wrestlers Bridge with Hand Support for Pectus Excavatum”.
Please comment below and tell if it has the same miraculous effect
as it has had for me.
I recommend this video. Just add support with your hands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aeMAvPgIsg
This is a good exercise, used to do it before going to bed and it always seemed to have a temporary effect of my PE.
ReplyDeleteSome other variations are doing it only on the head, for strengthening of the neck muscles, and doing it on your knees (from a seiza pose). The knee one is for someone with a well stretched spine, because it can lead to injuries otherwise.
It looks like this:
http://en.kuchipudi.ru/main/2.jpg
Also, another exercise I've developed myself quite recently - after doing some studying on scoliosis I've learned that plastic deformation in the human body starts occurring after the 18 minute mark. That is, if you want to fix your scoliosis then you can hold a pose in the opposite direction of the bend for at least 18 minutes at a time.
This can be applied to other parts of the body as well. I have successfully used it to stretch ligaments and tendons in my legs by holding a semi-split for 20 minutes at a time, and I'm positive it can be applied to the chest area as well.
For PE, simply put a hard pillow under your back, so that's it's arched and your sternum is pushed out. Doing this for half an hour a day (while watching TV or listening to music) should stretch and relax the tissue surrounding the chest. The spine position should not be interrupted during this time, but you are free to do other exercises in the meantime that do not interfere with the pose.
For me, this exercise loosens up my chest to a point that I can hear it popping.
Ryo,
DeleteWhere do you place your arms when you lie on your back with the pillow underneath?
Wherever I feel comfortable. Sometimes behind the head, sometimes on my sides, sometimes on the belly.
DeleteIt was a long time since the popping happened to me, but after this it does, and it is a good sign. Yes there are some variations of this one. I think that the balance 90-10% is what i found to be a little tricky to grasp. And the understanding to not only use the arms is one of the most important things NOT to do. I really tried to find an exact variation of my own on the internet but didn't find one so I decided to put a name on it the way I did. Had been so much easier to just put a link. I'm aware that internet is big. So this exercise may already exist the same way I do it. And I'm prepared to get that info. Interesting to read about what you have tested. I remember that I tried to bend the kyphotic spine in the beginning but after some testing I realized that it was better to bend the rest of the body so that the spine curves the right way. For example sleeping on a hard surface so that the spine "hangs in the air".
ReplyDeleteThere's a variation of this bridge in yoga called 'Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana' where the weight can be rested on elbows instead of the hands like this:
Deletehttp://www.yogaartandscience.com/poses/backext/dwipada/files/dwi-pada-viparita-dandasana.jpg
Thanks for the update, Bjorn, keep it up.
ReplyDeleteRyo: I will test the pillow trick you mentioned, it was so long time ago i tried it I almost forgot that I actually did. How well it works might depend of the severity of PE I think. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI think those that would benefit the most would be people with very tight chest muscles. Which is more or less another symptom of PE.
DeleteOften, you'll see people on body building forums asking for advice on their PE, and the advice they are given is "hit the bench, build up your hole". As someone who has tried to build muscle "around the hole", I can say that this is a bad idea, and is entirely counter-productive. By stressing the pectoral muscles, all you do is tightening them up, locking the PE into position, or sinking it down even further.
After reading your blog I discovered that what I really needed to do was to stretch and relax the chest muscles, relax the diaphragm and tighten the oblique and back muscles.
After I started using the pillow exercise, all the tension in my chest went away.
For strengthening the back muscles I've been using modified dip - push ups using two chairs. Basically I put 2 chairs a bit more than shoulder's with apart, and just do push ups going down as far as I can, so that my chest is completely open and my back muscles have to pull me out.
Ryo: Thanks for your effort. Discuss with you is very developing and makes me think and reminds me about how I developed my strategies. Put pressure in the upper shortened kyphotic back, I have now tested this. I found this subject so important so I will make a specific post about it. In short I can say that I believe that this can be really helpful in the beginning of the recovery process. My recommendation is to do it a limited number of times as quick start. And yet another thing. I recommend to not put pressure on the spine. To avoid that it would be best I believe to use two pillows and let the spine "hang in the air" in the middle of them. I think that the actual reason to why I abandoned this strategy is because the spine may be put under unnatural force depending on how it's done. I really appreciate your valuable engagement.
DeleteYou know, now that you mention it, a 2 pillow system could be more beneficial. I sometimes get slight back pain doing this exercise. It goes away once I finish, but then again I have a pretty flexible spine due to martial arts training.
DeleteI'll try to make a custom "seat" for my spine and see how it works out.
There's 1 exercise I've just found about and am wondering if you have any experience with it.
DeleteIt's called the Rader chest pull, apparently it was used by body builders in the Arnold era to grow their rib cages.
It works by applying body weight and back muscle force onto an out-stretched chest, pushing the sternum out and expanding it.
Here's a document describing how to do it:
http://www.google.si/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CEUQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.bodybuilding.com%2Fattachment.php%3Fattachmentid%3D839473%26d%3D1187800914&ei=Efe6VMfKAdHdasGAgcAK&usg=AFQjCNGtlWWx6eIUM1T1ZghL2gT8Jv8y2w&sig2=FsWctJNrsXpJuVyMoHPiLg&bvm=bv.83829542,d.d2s&cad=rja
Very often the lack of information can tell what is the most likely thing to be the right. "A whole world" goes to the gym. If PE could be fixed with conventional training there would have been thousands of people with PE that could tell how easy it was to fix/improve it. But as we all know, there aren't. I agree with you and concerning the "pillow trick" I personally believe that this is something that especially people with severe cases could benefit from. I definitely believe that even severe cases can be fixed, it will just take more time and demand "military discipline" at an even higher degree.
ReplyDeleteRyo: Rader chest pull; I have tried it. Probably beneficial in the beginning of the recovery if done correctly. The pillow; personally I have never done it and I recommend being careful and do it a limited number of times to be on the safe side. Be careful with the spine.
ReplyDeleteHello Bjorn,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your blog. It has very useful information in it and gives us alternatives for dealing with PE. Would this be a good description of the exercise you are describing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06xi0akh_mg?
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Dirk Langpap: Yes, basically. My version is about "NOT stay" in the arched position. Thank you.
ReplyDelete