Return to Life: Corkscrew

You’ll start to dig deep doing the Corkscrew– !

This exercise will .
Help correct a hunched over posture – perfect. for desk workers, drivers and cyclists.
Help you to rotate your spine better.
Increase your mobility.

What’s it good for? ⁠

• Developing abdominal and shoulder stability & strength.
• Developing oblique abdominal muscle group strength.
• Mobilising your spine.
• Stretching hamstrings (back of the legs).
• Learning control.

The “how to”

Repetitions: three times each direction.
Difficulty: advanced.
Prerequisites: One Hundred, Roll Over, Single Leg Circle, Spine Stretch Forward.
Lie on your back with your shoulders away from your ears and arms along your sides, palms down. Keeping them in the floor, reach your legs away from you, towards the opposite wall.
Draw in your abdominals and press your arms into the mat and extend your legs past 12 o’clock and bring them so that your knees are overhead. Keep them together, and on the midline of the body.
Inhale and take your legs to one side, circle out and down and around so that they are reaching away from you again, but now off the mat.
Exhale and move your legs to the other side of your arc. You should feel a strong deepening scoop on the lower belly as you bring your legs around and up to start position.
Repeat, going in the other direction. Continue until you have done three to each side.

Hints and Tips

💡 Imagine you are drawing a teardrop on your back.
💡 Although this is an abdominal exercise, ground yourself through your shoulders and arms to keep your shoulders a solid base to move from.
💡 Use abdominal and shoulder strength rather than gravity and momentum.
💡 Keep your lower back on the mat – roll up you tailbone throughout.
💡 Keep your legs pressed together, from thighs to ankles.

Safety Precautions

☀️  If you have a lower back injury or condition, or feel pain when doing this exercise, avoid it.
☀️  Because it requires laying on your back, it is not suitable for the second or third trimester of pregnancy …