Swan Prep

Let's take a look at the swan prep. For all back extension, proper mechanics in thoracic extension is so important. And this exercise is really about finding that thoracic extension, which relates also to moving the rib cage. And boys, this is something I'm passionate about. So let's take a look and I'll share some ideas here.

Again, we'll come down on on our bellies. I'd like you to begin with your I'd like to begin here with the hands, down outside of the shoulders, but the elbows are pretty close to the body. Now you can rest on the mat You could put a a towel underneath the forehead if you would like to rest your head without squishing your nose. That's something to think about. But think about what your underside of your body is doing. The first thing we wanna do is feel that We can we can kind of sense what's heavy and what's light. Okay? So the legs can be resting.

The pelvis needs to be heavy. Eventually, the legs would lift and they would be light. But right now they're just relaxed. The pelvis needs to be heavy, all three points. The rib cage, the low ribs need to be light so that the belly can be light here as well.

But then in order to get thoracic extension, we really want to be able to press or ground through the center of the upper back. So for me, that means that I'm I'm I'm kind of pressing my chest into the mat to float the part of my back above that away from the mat. So think about that really pressing the chest down to float the head and the collar bones up. And then I'm gonna try that just one more time pressing the chest down float the collar bones up. And then with my hands, perhaps helping a little bit, I might continue to lift a little bit higher.

So now my my chest has lifted, but it's been in an articulation way. And then I'll lower down. I'm gonna try that again. So I'll press my chest down. So I'm anchoring something to lift, and then I continue lifting to that thoracic extension. And the thing to key into is to be sure that those low ribs are still tucked up a little bit.

It doesn't mean they're not on the mat. It just means they're tucked in so the abdominals can support. And then perhaps from there, we'll continue to lift using the arms and eventually find ourselves with nice straight arms preparing for the full swan dive, coming down and out of that. So when you're able to properly engage the upper back, the thoracic spine, you may find that you feel the low back a little bit less in some of those big moves, and that's really ideal that we have holistic core strength, upper back, lower back, belly, all involved. That was the swan prep.

Thank you.