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Our instructors kindly invited me to participate today in this conclusion of the year 2010. They invited me to say something about yoga for the spine. We should first begin with the anatomy or structure of the spine, then say something about its functioning, and then about the kinds of problems we have and why we have them. Finally, we will explore how we can use yoga to help ourselves with these difficulties, to alleviate them—such as pain—or even to completely free ourselves from it. Shall we perhaps just begin, if you are ready? Anatomy You have all probably seen what the spine looks like. It is a cluster of 24 bones, which we call vertebrae. We divide the spine into the cervical part, which has seven vertebrae; twelve thoracic vertebrae; five lumbar vertebrae; and then the sacrum, which is essentially one bone. These are fused vertebrae; this is simply how the bones have developed. Then there is the coccyx, which is also a bone of fused vertebrae. In an anatomical image, we can clearly see that the spine is in a certain relationship with the scapulae, clavicles here in the front, ribs, and the pelvis. This is the main framework of our body, which we more technically call the axial skeleton. Then we also have the hands and feet, which naturally have their own bones. The vertebrae, or spine, are composed of individual vertebrae, which look like this from the side. This is the front side of the vertebra; this is the back side. The vertebrae are connected to each other through joints—small facet joints, as we call them—and also intervertebral discs, which have a special structure and function within the spine itself. We will touch upon that a little later. A vertebra is composed of the body, the vertebral body, which is essentially spongy bone. There is an arch and then slender projections. The arches, if you imagine several together, form a channel: the spinal canal. The spinal cord, depicted here in yellow, runs through this spinal canal. What is the spinal cord? It is the main highway in our body for nerve signals—the informational pathway that sends signals from the organs or from the periphery of the body to the brain, and also in the opposite direction. This is absolutely necessary for our body to function normally, so that we can walk, eat, and go to the bathroom. All of this is essentially made possible by this informational path. The nerves travel to the periphery of the extremities. They begin as a nerve root here in the intervertebral foramen and then continue to the periphery as nerves that branch out either to the organs—the heart, lungs, muscles—and of course also to the skin. That is the next part of anatomy. An image from an anatomy textbook shows the muscles and ligaments of our back. It is quite complex. We see how many muscles we have along our spine, supporting our back. On the right side, we see the deep muscles, the deep layer of back muscles, while on the other side there are more superficial muscles. These muscles have different shapes, vary in length, and follow different paths. Each muscle group has its own task, but together they maintain our position, our posture, our stance. At the same time, these muscles and ligaments must also allow the spine to move, so that we can walk, pick something up, and bend down. In this, the spinal cord—our highway for nerve impulses—and the nerves must not be damaged. This is a very complex task. Why Do We Have Pain in the Spine? Perhaps I should first mention two terms that you all surely know: acute pain and chronic pain. Acute means that something arises suddenly, but it can also be gradual. It means that the pain has suddenly intensified or gradually increased, like when we say our lower back is aching. This is acute pain. It is important to note that acute pain lasts only a few days or a few weeks—usually, for example, back pain lasts at most up to six weeks. The causes of acute pain are fractures or any other injuries, as well as strains on the musculoskeletal system. Here, I think, essentially, those burdens—you know, when weekend athletes work all week and then on the weekend remember and go cycling or to the mountains—but they are not accustomed to this. They overload their body, incorrectly overload the body, especially the spine, and then pain or problems arise. Chronic pains are more complex. They last for months or even years. If we consider this, there is no problem with acute ones. If it is that severe—which it usually is—I must say that even the greatest heroes, who otherwise avoid medicine, then take painkillers. But in acute cases, this is not a problem, because with time it passes within a couple of weeks at the latest. In the case of chronic pain, just imagine having to take painkillers every day for many years, 20 years. Do you know how many problems that brings along? A huge amount. Those of you who have similar experiences already know what it entails: stomach troubles, stomach ulcers, and even something worse. The causes of chronic pains are improper spinal alignment, wear and tear, and damage to the intervertebral discs. These are the three main causes behind our chronic back problems. The conditions or illnesses that lead to these causes—meaning to the improper form, wear, and damage of the intervertebral discs—are various diseases. You probably know them, have heard of them, or perhaps even have them: arthritis, osteoarthritis, curvature of the spine due to various causes, deficiency of bone minerals or osteoporosis, excessive body weight, and so on. We could continue listing. Now you might say, yes, alright, I have heard all this before, but I gain nothing from it. My doctor told me nothing at all. I am, let’s say, a 30-year-old man, I do not have osteoporosis, and I exercise regularly. Why does my lower back hurt? Why? Because of posture, repeatedly. These are the most common everyday things that we don’t even realize. Then at some point, pain arises and we say, well, I haven’t done anything like that. We will see everything we do, yet we still do not know; we are not aware. Stress normally worsens everything because we are in tension—physical, bodily postures. In an image, above you see the person from the side, and below from the front. Only these two are correct, but we usually do all of this. Usually just these two. Why do we do this? The reason can simply be habit. The problems can be something else. For example, we might have one leg shorter. Misfortune, we are born like this; the spine can already be shaped in such a way. These are then different matters. Even if we have pain, if something hurts you, you will bend in a way that feels more comfortable. All of this, I would say, spoils the posture. What does it mean to spoil the posture? It simply doesn’t look good, but what exactly does it mean for our spine? This means that our spine is more burdened than it otherwise would be. The most common among all these incorrect postures is this one. I am speaking for healthy people of all ages. This is the one—not the one where we just sit and sit like that. And then we look at the computer, and we keep typing. This is it. And what happens if we look at all the bodily postures? We could say a lot, but if we look at this: what happens when we sit like this, and we sit every day like this for eight hours at the computer at work? We push the sternum back, further hollowing the chest area called kyphosis, making it more rounded; we push the shoulders forward, shorten the chest muscles, tighten the lumbar muscles even more, placing greater strain on them, and shorten the muscles that move the hips forward, causing the muscles of our lower back to become more relaxed. We do all this simply because we sit like this. If we sit like this for eight hours every day, it has unfortunate consequences. Let me return once more to the very form of the spine. The spine has the correct shape, which is the proper form of the double S-shaped spine. Perhaps you can see it better here, because we always say that the first part of the spine is less flexible. This is because there are ribs here, and they simply do not allow this part of the spine to move more freely. If we touch a little on biophysics and biomechanics, and calculate all these forces, levers, and stresses, we would find that the most burdened vertebra is the last lumbar vertebra, L5. In medicine, they call this L5, L4, L5—here, these two, but especially this one. A cross, right? This is a cross. And if I weigh sixty kilos and stand now properly, straight, I put a little strain on this poor little neck with sixty kilos. Can you imagine how much that is? All the branches—one little jackal weighs fifty kilos, I can’t lift it, right? And the door is that big, right? Can you imagine what kind of power this is? And what happens if I simply bend forward, just like this, without any strain, with a fairly straight spine? The force on this lumbar vertebra, on the fifth lumbar vertebra, increases two to three times. It is said that it then bears a load of 120 or even 180 kilograms on such a vertebra. I simply bow down, take nothing, lift nothing. I simply bow. But when I bow, I also lift something up. Let’s say a 60-kilogram person lifts 50 kilograms. Look at how many kilos he actually lifts. With what kind of weights do we burden the lumbar vertebra? Almost 730 kilograms. That is eleven times more. But if we lift correctly—that is why it is important how we lift—if we lift correctly, yes, there is a greater load, of course there is, but it’s not two hundred or seven hundred kilos. And those things—it’s not necessary that we lift 50 kilos. We lift two kilos every day, right? We take one liter of milk from the refrigerator, which is one kilogram. Approximately. And how is it even possible that our spine can withstand such forces? Not because of its shape alone. According to the laws of physics, the forces then redistribute. Of course, this happens only if we have the right conditions, meaning that the spine has the correct shape and that we load it properly. The intervertebral disc plays a very important role. It consists of a nucleus pulposus and an annulus fibrosus. The nucleus pulposus is essentially a gelatinous little sphere. Water, the essence of water, is within. And, you know, if we compress water, the water distributes evenly everywhere, and the forces distribute as well. And so, this core is essentially filled with fluid, with water, to distribute the forces. This part around serves to prevent the little ball from escaping. The ball would simply escape if we pressed. But when we burden the spine, especially in an incorrect way, we burden these little balls, pressing, pressing, and from the balls, water comes out for the first time. And if you have ever heard that, for example, in the evening we can be up to a few centimeters shorter than in the morning, you have heard correctly. This is because the intervertebral discs compress as some water seeps out. Besides the fact that this water is flowing out, this fibrous ring is also loosening, because it is pushing inward, and the fibrous ring would hit something inside. So every day little by little, rushing in several times a day, then over time it eases. And what happens? A herniated disc. This is now a completely different story. A herniated disc can have consequences ranging from just pain to severe disability. But that is another story. It depends on where this is headed. That is what is called a herniated disc, when the pulposus nucleus bursts out of the fibrous ring. Let’s say, when we lift—one more example—how important it is to load correctly. Why? To properly load the intervertebral discs as well. After all, a single intervertebral disc wouldn’t withstand such stresses, because we have several of these intervertebral discs, and then the forces are distributed. But if we lift incorrectly, you see what happens. I think the image beautifully shows where this pulsing core is heading, where it flows. But it’s not necessary for us to raise anything. See, this is what we do every day, almost all of us. Most people do this every day. This is how we sit on an unsuitable chair, in an improper posture. But if we were to sit like this, if we had a good chair, a good position, then the matter would be somewhat different. One more thing that is very dangerous for our spine—not just lifting, and not just posture—is actually almost the most dangerous. When we are sitting and the phone rings, and we turn around quickly. That’s how we get injured, and then we turn even more. At that time, we further burden our vertebrae and intervertebral discs with additional forces—these shear forces, these torsional forces—and problems arise even more quickly. I have essentially shown just a few examples from everyday life, what we actually do without even realizing it, and then we simply wonder why we face difficulties. Why do we have problems, when we don’t do anything like that? Look, high heels, for example, when girls wear them: the higher they are, the more we strain the spine because we push the pelvis backward. This means that this area actually deepens, the muscles tense more, and the pressure on that fifth lumbar vertebra increases again. Then, when we load something into the car, that twist occurs again, which is very dangerous. Why? Because we do not think about it. We only think about how to load the cargo into the car; we do not think about how we will strain our spine. How we sleep—just watch how we sleep. We wash ourselves or wash the dishes; watch how we stand. We all do this, don’t we? In the morning, you don’t even think about how you will stand by the sink. In the morning, you get ready for work. Problems begin already in early youth. Small children do not yet have developed muscles in the spine. It is not wrong to wear a backpack sometimes, but we should not just stare at it endlessly to see what happens. And the consequence is that the spine, as it grows, takes on such a shape; we call this scoliosis. How Can We Alleviate or Prevent These Issues? Now that we have reached that point, how can we alleviate it, if not prevent it altogether? Yoga for the spine in everyday life. Because after all, we all do something and say, yes, but I just don’t have time. That’s all well and good, but I don’t have time; there are other things; I barely eat. Yes, indeed, I believe, but today we will say something that none of us could say no to, because there is no time. The first condition we must have is to do yoga. That means one āsana, and ten minutes. Ten minutes. Now you all have to admit that you have ten minutes. So that you can be in place in the morning, I don’t know, at six o’clock, you can stand from ten to six, right? I think it could work. We will show what kind of program could be done in these ten minutes. And I would ask, please, our demonstrator, Lena, to please do the āsanas. In the back rows, so you can see better. You can stay in front if you prefer, but please sit so those in the back can see. Tomorrow, when we stay—no, it’s best to first go to the bathroom, brush our teeth, go to the toilet, and then immediately slip, for example, into the living room or wherever you do your practice, wherever you have space, and lie down in andāsana. We lie down. Now, let’s say in the morning I wake up late and otherwise I fall asleep, right, and then I start with the practice. But in the morning first we stretch. Lena, please, with an inhale we raise the arms behind the head, interlace the fingers, press the heels toward the wall and press the sacrum against the floor, and with an inhale we return back and repeat this two more times. Inhale, hands behind the head, interlace the fingers. It is very important to press the sacrum against the floor to relieve it, and the heels towards the wall, because if you do not do this, you will get a cramp. And once again, please. Why is stretching so important? We already do this naturally, stretching in the morning. Why is this important? Let us relieve the spine, relieve it a little, little by little. We will stretch the ligaments and muscles and relieve the intervertebral discs. Even just by sleeping, and then in the morning even more so by stretching. Then we can continue with rocking. Stretch the arms behind the head, interlace the fingers, and rock to the left and right, three times on each side. In the morning, we can practice these āsanas or exercises a little faster—first, so that we awaken, so that we do not fall asleep, and also to awaken our body. Koteljenje is a wonderful āsana, an excellent practice for awakening the body. For the healthy, we also massage the muscles and ligaments in the back. Let the arms rest back alongside the body. We continue with the twists. Twist: bend the knees, this is a basic twist, bring the knees and feet together, hands perpendicular to the body, inhale and with the exhale knees to the left and head to the right. With twists, we also mobilize the spine very well. Please, continue, five times on each side. With twists, we mobilize the spine thoroughly, awaken the spine, and deepen the breath. Let us prepare for the day. Simply and purely. Let us prepare for the day. These exercises, or rather these āsanas, must be practiced very carefully. We must not make sudden movements, especially if we have any issues, a sprain, or anywhere along the spine. Instead, move slowly and with awareness. Because this is not that elevation. Here, in this moment, we are in the thoughts of the spine. What is happening, where are the feet, where is the head, what are the hands doing, how are we breathing. That is what we have in mind and something we will be doing throughout the day. We do this five times on each side. In the end, you can hold the posture and the tensions that arise; usually, tensions appear here and in the shoulder. Hold the position, breathe normally, and with each exhale try to relax those parts. Wherever you feel it, even if you feel tensions elsewhere. But you walk through the body and exhale the tensions. If there is anything more, and then we will conclude on the other side. If there is pain or discomfort, even a subtle pain, then do not force it. If you listen to your body, you will not harm yourself. You can safely practice these exercises. Even if you have had problems with anxiety, even if you had surgery some time ago—not recently—you can practice without worry, but you must listen carefully. We continue with daṇḍāsana. Please place your hands beside your hips, sit down in daṇḍāsana, engage through the shoulders. We place our fingers on the shoulders and begin with a contraction on the exhale, hands in front, inhale, hands behind. Hands, fists in front, bring them almost together and from behind also bring your hands as close as possible. This practice relieves the shoulder area, the shoulder girdle, and the shoulders. Here we have the greatest tension, both from the posture itself and also from the stiffness and rigidity. When we do these exercises, we increase blood flow and stretch the muscles, thereby automatically releasing tension in that area. And again, please, five times in each direction. Next, the side bend: place your hands behind your head, interlace your fingers, and with an exhale, lean to one side. Here we are careful not to lean in a way that involves rotation, but we try to lean as much as possible in a straight line to the side. As much as it goes. You see, the body is opening. If you do this regularly, each time you will be a little more. It may happen that you don’t progress for a while, and then suddenly you will see that now you can actually deepen the posture. With the practice, we stretch the muscles, strengthen the abdominal muscles—which are also important, very important for proper posture. Let us strengthen the back muscles and then deepen the breathing, especially in the lateral parts of the lungs, which we usually do not breathe into deeply enough to fill those side areas of the lungs. Rowing. Rowing is a bit more demanding. Let us awaken our inner fire, stimulate digestion, metabolism, for we are beginning. We stretch out our arms, hold the oars like this, stretch out, and with the exhale we bend forward. In rowing, we place the fingers in a fist and exhale with the fingers in the fist, then inhale back. And exhale forward. Lena does this very beautifully. When she goes back, you see how she has a straight line as she bends, essentially, when she comes back. You see how the straight line of the arm continues seamlessly with the body. She, by doing it correctly, strengthens the muscles—all the back muscles. It strengthens the muscles of the abdomen, shoulders, and arms, while also stretching the leg muscles and mobilizing the ankles. And back again. This practice is quite demanding, and it’s difficult to perform it so gracefully. Look, Lena does it so beautifully that it looks simple, truly. In reality, this is a very difficult practice. Isn’t it, Lena? Alright, enough. Now we can rest a little and lean back comfortably. And we will do just two more exercises. Namely, we will sit down for the cat exercise. You all know the cat, right? The cat—you see, I am enthusiastic about the cat, right? This is truly the perfect practice. When we truly awaken, we stretch ourselves, especially if our stomach hurts. Well, with girls, with menstrual issues, and with men, some other problems. It’s great, isn’t it? So let’s go with option A. Please. Let us rise beautifully with a straight back, then come down. Our hands and feet are approximately as they should be. We straighten the back when we exhale. And with the inhalation, or by expanding, now we arch it. And with the inhalation, exhalation, stay a little in this position. In this position, we emphasize the sacral area. When we bend forward, we do not emphasize the lower back, because if we do that, our lower back will hurt, but we emphasize the area between the shoulder blades. We stretch this part. We do not move the neck, but it is as if someone were pulling the neck. So, we do not do this because we would strain the neck, and if our neck hurts, it will hurt even more. That means we do not exaggerate the movement, but have the feeling as if someone is gently pulling our neck. And then exhale again. And when we finish, we rise with the inhalation and exhale back down. And then there is the B variation of the cat. The B variation is basically similar, only that we lean on the forearms. And with the exhale, we also arch the spine and here we offer this part of the spine, the thoracic part, which is otherwise more flow. We said it is because of the nerves, but it is also very burdened. If this part hurts, this variation of the cat pose is the right one, perhaps better. Otherwise, the same: with the inhalation, we curve the spine, and with the exhalation, we arch it. We work more with the thoracic part of the spine. Inhale, we rise, and exhale along the plane of the backs, upwards. No, this is yoga for the spine in ten minutes. Try it, you will see. You see, words really don’t need to be trusted by anyone. In a month, you will see what a difference it will make. But not only in the spine, but in your activity, the more energy you will have. Because our energy channels also open when we are active and moving. And we have more energy. And also, for example, if we do not have time to sleep enough, we can still gain some energy just with these ten minutes. Thank you very much, Lena. That would be all from my side.