The spine is the foundational structure of our body that carries not only the anatomy of vertebrae and discs, but also our muscles, tendons, fascia, and ligaments. From the side spaces within the intervertebral joints, we also have the critical spinal nerves that come from our central nervous system (brain), with the spinal blood vessels that travel alongside them. It is important to note that these nerves and vessels supply both our skeletal muscles as well as our internal organs.
Our spine is an essential source of power. Our ability to sit or stand upright, move, walk, run, feel, breathe, digest, eliminate and function all come from the spine. And for our spine to do this work well, we need to have proper alignment.
What does healthy alignment of the spine mean? How can our tai chi help this?
In tai chi, our heads rest gently upon our necks in a neutral position. If we allow our heads to tilt into a forward flexed posture, looking down at our feet while moving, our neck muscles become tense and exert unnecessary pressure on the spine. The blood supply to our head is temporarily reduced as a result and our breathing becomes shallower since the nerves supplying our diaphragm come from C3, C4, C5 (cervical vertebrae). Our center of gravity also shifts: our shoulders pull back and our pelvis tilts forward to compensate. This increases our risk of back pain in both the thoracic and lumbar areas of the spine.
We are also taught in tai chi that our shoulders and elbows need to remain dropped, our chests open, and our hips and knees relaxed and slightly flexed. This posture allows our pelvic area and “Kua” (hips) to remain open with our sacrum tilted back and lengthened, as in a Dan Yu. The effect of this pose is that our internal organs are given more room to move freely, allowing them to easily receive the important circulation they need.
The correct angle of our feet is the final element that allows for a neutral spine.
Tai chi practice protects and promotes the optimal health and power of our spine!
Copyright ©️ 2024 Lila Zitouni
Translation by Jordi Awarita , Réjeanne Gagnon, Cathy Filion
Thank you Lila, I was perusing A. D. A. M., Student Atlas of Anatomy. In Particular, pp. 304, 305 -Segmental Innervatioin of Joint Actions. I was fascinated by how the movements of tai chi directly correlate with specific spinal nerves. The diagrams show, for example, one move that I didn’t quite understand, although it feels good to do it. It’s the move where we swing our arms back and forth in front and behind our body. This movement is directed by C5-C8 or cervical spinal nerves. There is a diagram of various hand, fingers and arms and the correlation to various spinal nerves, particularly the ones in the cervical spine and part of the thoracic nerves. It’s as if Master Moy took out an anatomy book to study how to best engage these nerves. I highly recommend everybody get a hold of an anatomy book and check this out.
Thanks, Anna. Each and every nerve in our body is supplied by different branches of spinal nerves. For example, the thoracodorsal nerve ( C6, 7, 8) innervates the Latissimus Dorsi and the femoral nerve ( L2, L3, L4) innervates the Quads. This is why a spinal cord injury is so devastating as movements are lost and other muscles must take over.
Gracias por este excelente artículo.
This is such an informative article. It helps me to visually appreciate as well as understand that the posture encouraged in Tai Chi as well as the practice offer so many benefits. Thank you.
Tout cela a bien du sens pour moi. Quand l’alignement est bon, les mouvements sont plus fluides et plus ouverts, et le corps tout entier respire mieux. Merci beaucoup pour cet article!
Thank you for this. Personally, visualization plays a large role towards deeper relaxation & relaxed/more genuine connections. Images are key in visualization. Beautiful work here.
Thank you, Ed! Glad the images are speaking to you. The spine is such a central element in our tai chi practice and it is good to view it in a 3 dimensional way to better understand it’s role.