Exercises for the spine: morning warm-up, therapeutic exercises

Benefits of cat exercise

The benefits of this movement are truly enormous:

it perfectly removes tension from muscles and relieves fatigue, including after a long “sedentary” day;
strengthens the muscular frame of the back;
all neck muscles are strengthened;
helps to lose weight, as it activates metabolism and promotes fat resorption;
good for the spine, gives a light load on it, perfectly stretching its intervertebral discs and activating blood flow;
works as a prevention of colds;
gently tones the reproductive system;
helps after childbirth to return the tummy back and make it flat;
develops smooth breathing and provides oxygen to the tissues and cells of the body;
helps prevent constipation and swelling, including in pregnant women;
helps reduce belly fat;
improves the functions of the stomach and intestines, as it improves their blood flow.

And that’s not all there is to making a cat.

There is information that this movement is extremely useful for women during menstruation - it helps reduce their intensity and relieves pain.

In addition, this exercise is indispensable for those who are in the rehabilitation period after operations and injuries.

And all because the cat exercise for the back is very gentle and does not require much tension.

Nevertheless, it helps to gently strengthen your back and restore muscle tone.

"Swimming"

Lie on your stomach with your arms extended in front of you, palms down. Slightly lift your chest, arms and legs off the floor. Legs are straight, toes slightly pointed. Raise your right arm and left leg a little higher. Lower it. Raise your left arm and right leg. Return to the starting position.

Changing the position of the arms and legs is done slowly and smoothly. During the exercise, it is important to keep your stomach and buttocks tucked, and your spine stretched along its entire length.

The gaze should be directed to the floor. For each inhalation and exhalation you need to perform two changes of movement. Perform 10 such breathing cycles.

Cat exercise for the back, why is consistency important?

Here are reasons sufficient for regularity:

The exercise is simple and accessible to everyone; it does not require equipment, a trainer, or even a special attitude.
Takes little time.
It is pleasant, because the muscles of the back, chest, arms, buttocks are stretched, and there is no pain or tension.
No special physical “background” or preparation is required.
You can perform it at any time convenient for you, contraindications are minimal.

What muscles work? The cat pose forces you to work: all the muscles responsible for straightening the back, the rectus abdominis muscle, the external muscle, and the internal oblique muscles.

Varieties of exercise

In addition to the standard pose, there are 3 more varieties:

“cat moving its tail” - performed as a standard version of the exercise, but wagging the hips left and right is added;
“Sphinx” - the pose involves standing not on your palms, but on your forearms;
"Japanese cat" - the starting position is sitting on your heels, and your hands are located on your hips.

How to do the cat exercise correctly?

Just getting down on all fours and starting to arch your back is not enough! Here's how to do this movement correctly:

Get on all fours, place your hands under your shoulders, your fingers straight forward, your legs bent at right angles, and your knees under your pelvis.
Tighten your tummy and keep it tight as you move.
Start arching upward (and then bending) from your tailbone, without pressing the back of your head to the back or your chin to your chest.
Inhale as you return to the straight position, and exhale as you bend and bend.
It is useful to linger for literally 5 seconds in each phase.
Round your back to the maximum, while pushing your pelvis forward, and squeezing and straining your buttocks, lowering your head, stretching the back of your neck.
During a smooth movement, try to consistently “feel” each vertebra from the tailbone to the neck and vice versa. Focus on movement.

A gentle technique for performing the “cat” in the video:

The types of movement are:

Sphinx - done like a classic movement, only the emphasis is on the elbows, not on the palms.
We twist our tail. To the main movement you add movements of the pelvis to the right and left, reminiscent of those in which a cat twists its tail.
Japanese cat - is done not on all fours, but on the heels, while the hands are placed on the knees, and the back moves (rounding and arching) in approximately the same way. This option is more gentle.

In fact, the movement of arching your back up and down is called “cat-cow pose.” The correct ending to this activity is relaxation in the “baby pose.”

To take it, sit on your heels, bend over and press your chest to the floor, and stretch your arms forward. Place your head between your hands and relax as much as possible.

If you are a complete beginner, then start with 2 or 3 repetitions. Increase the number of repetitions gradually, bringing up to 10. When it becomes easy, do 2-3 approaches. You can and should exercise every day. Or at least 3 times a week.

An important point: do not exercise immediately before bed and in the first 2 hours after a meal.

Execution technique

You need to be on all fours, your back straight, your hands directly under your shoulders. The distance between the palms is at shoulder width, and the legs are no more than 10 cm.

Take a deep breath and exhale sharply, during which you need to round your back as much as possible, lifting it up. At the same time, the stomach is drawn in. The gaze is directed downwards. The position resembles that of a cat in times of danger.

You need to stay in this position for 5 seconds, then your back bends in the lower back, a deep breath is taken, and your head is thrown back up. You also need to stay in this position for 5 seconds.

Folding your back will count as 1 repetition.

How to arch your back for expectant mothers?

For pregnant women, this exercise is most useful. If there are no special problems, it can be performed all trimesters. If there is, then only in the first.

Bending the back maintains muscle tone for the expectant mother.

Thus, the course of pregnancy and childbirth itself is facilitated. The cat exercise is also good for the back and spine, it perfectly relieves tension, and works as a prevention of constipation and swelling.

Everyone who performs it gets in shape faster after childbirth.

Attention: at the slightest sign of strange health, stop exercising. It’s best to consult your doctor before starting classes.

Healthy lifestyle

This is exactly the stage that it is better to start as early as possible, and it is better that it lasts a lifetime.

After all, it’s not so easy and not so quick to give up bad habits. Sometimes this can take a year.

It is necessary not only to change your attitude towards smoking and alcohol, but also to put your life in order in general. For example, you need to gradually get used to eating healthy foods. You may have to change your daily routine to find time to cook. It is also very important to get enough sleep and listen to your biological ri class=”aligncenter” width=”350″ height=”233″[/img]

The more you achieve harmony with yourself and with nature, the faster and easier conception will occur.

You will have to accept the fact that you will work less and rest more during pregnancy. This is especially true for women who spend a lot of effort on moving up the career ladder. Agree that it is difficult to change your life so radically in 1 month.

It will not be superfluous to engage in sports, which will not be accompanied by heavy physical activity.

Yoga, Pilates, fitness are good. The fact is that during pregnancy, the muscles of the back and spine experience an unusual load due to the growing fetus. It will be better if you strengthen them in advance.

And immediately after giving birth, it will also be difficult to exercise, while most of the time you will be working with the baby and carrying him in your arms. Therefore, during classes, pay more attention to exercises for the back and abdominal muscles.

It would be useful to cleanse the body. First you need to give up smoking and regular consumption of alcohol, or large amounts of it. The future father of the child should also stop smoking, since the house where you bring the baby from the maternity hospital should not be constantly filled with cigarette smoke.

If possible, it is better to refuse to work with hazardous substances or change your work rate. Carefully review all household hygiene products. Instead of many bottles and jars, it is better to choose one universal cleaning product that will not be very harmful. Anyway, this will have to be done with the birth of the baby, and this way you will have less worries later.

Carefully monitor the medications you take.

Cleansing the body means giving up everything synthetic, so when you have another cold, try drinking tea with lemon, honey and raspberries.

Antibiotics are especially harmful when planning pregnancy; some can cause malformations in the baby if conception occurs in the same cycle.

Therefore, if taking antibiotics is unavoidable, consult your doctor and ask him to prescribe ones that are compatible with pregnancy and breastfeeding.

To cleanse the body, you can use various water procedures and regularly visit the bathhouse. Get rid of parasites even in a preventive form, because in the next few years this will not be possible.

You can also go on a diet that involves giving up heavy foods: meat and everything fatty. But not for long and not during pregnancy.

All this will help you get in shape and saturate your body with vitamins. Some of them are especially important for the unborn baby, and they should be taken even before pregnancy.

Thus, folic acid is needed at a very early stage in the first 5 weeks of embryo development for the formation of its nervous system. And its deficiency must be replenished 3 months before pregnancy.

If it is winter or early spring, you can purchase at the pharmacy all the necessary vitamins for planning and pregnant women. Or you can consume natural vegetables and fruits in the appropriate season, the main thing is to know which ones are needed specifically in your situation.

Vitamins and products containing them should be selected wisely, because not all of them are beneficial for the child, and some can even harm him.

We would like to separately note that all our recommendations regarding a healthy lifestyle fully apply to the future father, because the child will inherit the genes of mom and dad equally.

He needs to begin healing his body at least 3 months before conception. And there is a scientific explanation for this - spermatogenesis lasts 2.5-3 months, which means that much time is needed for the maturation of healthy sperm that can provide your child with good genetic material.

Some recommendations concern preparation for pregnancy from a medical point of view.

Easier type of exercise

By the way, in the second and third trimesters, as well as for everyone who is very heavy or has severe back and lower back pain, it is recommended to do a “light cat”.

Its essence is simple - a person simply stands on all fours, breathes deeply and smoothly, and tries to relax his back as much as possible. There is no need to move your back.

In this form, activity also removes stress from the spine well, activates blood flow in the areas of the intervertebral discs, facilitates the functioning of the kidneys and removes tension and pain in the lower back.

How to avoid mistakes

Above we mentioned some errors in the execution technique. Let's look at them in more detail so that your body becomes stronger and more resilient without harm to your health.

Before performing the exercise you need to relax. How to do it? Place a mirror nearby if you're practicing at home, or record yourself on camera to see your mistakes. Standing on all fours in the original position, arch your entire back, not just your lumbar region, as far down as possible and relax it so that your shoulder blades stick out upward. Please note that your back must be straight. If so, you are ready to do it right.
When moving the cervical spine, do not turn your head to the sides. Do not press your chin to your chest when exhaling, or the back of your head to your back when inhaling - this is wrong. This way you only clamp the third and fifth vertebrae, but you need to move the entire cervical region. Imagine that the head is in the plane between two boards. So, you need to move the cervical region so that the head moves along these boards. If it doesn’t work right away, try moving your neck back and forth while sitting, get used to it and start the exercise.

Life story

My distant relative, in his “slightly over 50s,” was far from sports and any activities. And, naturally, he began to have problems with his back, due to a lack of movement and peculiarities of activity. After sedentary work, his back “stood like a stake,” as he said, his lower back ached badly.

Of course, he didn’t want to go to the gym, and didn’t have the courage to fully exercise. But a trainer he knew advised the man to do a cat exercise in the morning. And the exercise started! After all, it’s simple, fast, easy and even pleasant.

As a result, my relative’s back pain went away. Moreover, he began to see vivid and memorable dreams, and his memory also improved. Apparently, due to the fact that the blood flow was activated and the brain began to receive more nutrition. This is a positive side effect!

Who can't move their back like a cat?

Contraindications for this activity are minimal: serious back and neck injuries, as well as lumbar hernia.

Pregnant women, heart patients, diabetics, and obese people can and should do “Cat”!

That's all, my dear readers! I really hope that after reading the article, you will be inspired by the idea of doing “cat” regularly. And this will provide you with a healthy back, good posture and good health. I wish this for you with all my heart.

I would be glad if you subscribe to my channel and share this article with those who need it. First of all, with friends on social networks. Thank you in advance for your likes and comments. See you again!

Effect on the body

During the training process, the abdominal and back muscles are included in the work, the lumbar and core muscles are trained. The spine is stretched and posture, flexibility of the back, shoulders and neck improves, and coordination also becomes better.

In addition, the abdominal muscles are trained; you won’t be able to pump them up with this exercise, but you can tighten the rectus abdominis muscle. By the way, the best method for treating a bulging belly is considered to be an exercise - a vacuum.

Many people, after regular practice, note a reduction in pain in the lower back.