KEY AREAS: Lower Back, Middle Back, Injury Prevention, Plus small stretches for Lumbar Region, Lats, Chest and Shoulders
START POSITION: Kneel down and put both hands flat down on the floor in front of you about shoulder width apart, with arms almost locked out but relaxed.
NOTES: From the start position, slowly slide back wards from your hips so that the base of your buttocks are in line with your heels. Tuck your head in and down as you do this. Move your knees slightly apart to find the most relaxed position. Keep your back stretched long. Your feet can be together or slightly apart behind you – whatever feels best.
Rest your forehead on the ground or on a pillow.
Allow your shoulders to relax and flop away from your ears.
Gently rock from side to side on your haunches – tiny (2 cm) movements are enough. This gives more of a stretch to the Lats and Shoulders and helps to stimulate circulation in the Lower Back (similar to a massage).
The Prayers exercise is sometimes also referred to as the ‘Child Pose’ (with Yoga origins) – usually when it is used by pregnant women to ease back pain and other stresses.
This is an important exercise because it predominantly targets the lower back area, helping to relax it, but it also helps to relax other areas of the body. It is so important and effective that I will often use it ad hoc by ‘sprinkling’ it into my other exercise routines – I do this whenever I feel that I have just put pressure on my lower back by doing other exercises, particularly exercises that pull the back muscles and spine in the opposite direction.
For example, the Pilates Cobra or Swimmer moves do put some pressure in the Lower Back region and immediately after doing these it always feels good to balance the spine out by pulling it back the other way. So, the Prayer exercise appears not just once, but several times throughout my established routines – particularly those for Pilates and Back, This is a good example of symmetry and balance which are two fundamental building blocks of the Mojoh Method.