Cultivating a correct placement of the body saves pain and injury, and helps to have a harmonious figure. The alignment of the spine is fundamental in this regard. We indicate some exercises that will help you stretch it and keep it erchi.

Put your back straight! How many times do teenagers have to hear it? But, as tedious as this persistence is, it is the most successful. Even if it takes effort, maintaining proper body alignment is worth it. Pain and injury are avoided, productivity and physical performance are increased, mood improves and you may even gain self-confidence.
AN ALIGNED SPINE PREVENTS DISCOMFORT FROM HEAD TO TOE
The consequences of poor postural habits are many and affect from head to toe. So, before you take a pill, try to improve your posture!
- Headaches. An inadequate posture tenses the muscles of the neck, shoulders, jaw … This adds pressure to the muscles and blood vessels that come and go in the brain, which favors the appearance of migraines and headaches.
- Back and neck. They can hurt from poor posture that causes improper weight distribution of the head, as well as overexertion of the back muscles.
- Poor digestion. A hunched posture compresses internal organs, such as the intestine and stomach, and can lead to slow and heavy digestions by slowing down the entire digestive process.
- Shortness of breath. The lungs, due to their position, can also be pressed under the curvature of the back, and cause breathing to become more superficial and that we do not adequately oxygenate the internal organs.
POSTURE INFLUENCES WHAT YOU FEEL
Just as an excessive curvature of the lumbar region can cause a bulge in the abdomen, or walking with the shoulders forward generates a hump over time, an incorrect body alignment ends up modifying our emotional life.
In this context, self-esteem or personal security may be compromised. In fact, there is research linking an upright posture (standing or sitting) with personal feelings of power, control, and confidence in decision-making. And this is something we all know: “looking good” has a clear and close relationship with “feeling good”.
BALL EXERCISES
The yoga sequence of this article is designed to lengthen the spine and relieve tensions in the back, shoulders and neck, but also to strengthen the center of the body or “core”, as they say in Pilates, and thus improve balance.
The support elements or “props” are used in yoga with therapeutic sense or to facilitate alignment and promote stability. On this occasion, we will use a ball, in order to go deeper into the sensations. If you don’t have one, that’s okay. The sequence will be equally beneficial to you!
STRETCH OUT GROWING TOWARDS THE SKY
The simplicity of this stance is deceiving. Attending to each of the actions it requires is not easy!
- Put your feet together, activate your legs and hold the ball with your hands.
- Inhale and bring your arms straight forward and up.
- Relax the shoulders away from the ears, open the chest and soften the lumbar curve by tilting the pelvis slightly and activating the abdomen. Lengthens the neck.
- Hold about five breaths while you feel how you root yourself in the earth and, at the same time, grow by lengthening the sides of the trunk.
- Rest your arms a couple or three breaths and repeat three more times.
BEND DOWN TO FREE YOUR VERTEBRAE
Forward push-ups help lengthen the back and increase the space between the vertebrae.
- Put your feet together, activate your legs and hold the ball with your hands.
- Inhale and raise your arms above your head activating the thrust of your feet towards the ground.
- Exhale and fold from the hips by lengthening the trunk and arms forward and then down.
- Bring your abdomen closer to your legs, rest the ball on your tibias and rest your forehead on it. Keep your shoulders relaxed and release the weight from your head.
- Take six to eight deep breaths and gradually incorporate yourself to return to the initial posture.
GROW AND CALM DOWN INSIDE
The clamp is one of the yoga positions that most help to relax the back.
- Sit on the ball and stretch your legs forward. Keep your heels flexed and your toes active.
- Inhale and lengthen your arms feeling your ischia on the ball (or the ground if you don’t have it) and the expansion of your ribs.
- When exhaling flex from the hips growing forward and down. Let your arms fall, without tension in the shoulders, and relax your hands where they arrive.
- Hold the bending for eight or ten breaths.
- Undo in an exhalation by stretching trunk and arms.
TURN YOUR SPINE AND BREATHE
Enjoy this torsion, which helps maintain a healthy spine.
- Sit with your legs straight and bring your right foot above your left thigh.
- Place the ball under your right buttock and put your left arm around your right knee. Inhale by bringing it closer to your chest while lengthening your spine and stretching your right arm back.
- Exhale by intensifying the twisting so that your chin is above your left shoulder.
- Keep about five breaths feeling how the accumulated tensions in your back are released and how the vertebrae rotate.
- Undo in an exhale and repeat the twist to the other side.
GAIN STRENGTH IN YOUR CORE
Balancing postures, which bring the weight of the body to one foot, tone our center.
- With your feet together and the ball in your hands, inhale by extending your arms above your head and activate your legs well.
- Transfer the weight of the body to the right foot. Slowly and controllably bring your left leg back and up while tilting your trunk and arms forward.
- Keep your right leg straight and lengthen your neck.
- Feel the center of your body holding the weight with stability for 5 breaths and undo the pose. Repeat to the other side.
ACHIEVE DEEP RELAXATION
With the ball under the neck, you will feel better how tension is released in the neck and shoulders.
- Lie on your back with your legs open the width of your hips, your arms at the sides of the trunk with the palms of your hands projected towards the sky and your chin near your chest.
- If your lower back bothers you, bend your knees or put a rolled-up blanket or cushion under them.
- Place the ball on the back of your neck exerting a gentle pressure towards the ground and noticing how your neck is massaged. Close your eyes and relax.
- Lie still for at least 5 minutes.