Any new parent can tell you of the importance of tummy time for healthy spinal development. The evolution of the human spine is an incredible thing, but the ‘devolution’ of the spine that occurs in adults who spend too much time hunched in front of a computer is frightening. I’m here today to say it: adults need tummy time, too. And yoga can provide it!
At birth, humans have a single C-shaped curve, and it is only in the first few months of life that the first secondary curve of the cervical spine develops. Tummy time is an important way that babies develop the strength and ability to hold their heads up, and thus create the curve of the cervical spine. The next secondary curve of the lumbar spine develops as a child learns to creep and crawl.
Imagine your posture after you’ve been sitting in front of a computer for hours. You’re tired of sitting and your back is achy, so you slump back in your chair. But then you can’t see the screen very well so you find yourself leaning closer and closer. Your chin juts forward, the cervical and lumbar curves are reduced to the point where the spine more closely resembles a c-shape than the s-shape it should be in a healthy adult. Prolonged bouts of sitting in this manner may lead to a profound loss in strength in the core muscles of the body (think support system for the spine rather than “abs of steel”), resulting in a loss of the ability to access, much less maintain, the good posture we developed as active toddlers.
What to do?
