THE KEYSTONE BRIDGE

 

The Keystone Bridge is a daily exercise to counter the corrosive effects to the spinal column and discs from a lifetime of daily sitting. It is both relieving and rehabilitative. If done correctly and consistently, it can have a noticeable effect.

 

Three primary factors in the the development of spinal arthritis and disc degeneration are:

•  Increased weight load 

•  Increased impact, including the intensity and number of impacts 

•  and sitting. 

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Of these, sitting is perhaps the most common and consistent factor. By the time many of us have graduated high school, we have already sat for more than 15,000 hours. Chronic sitting tends to distort the configuration of the spinal column and discs, increasing the stress on the joints and soft tissue.

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The Keystone Bridge is an active, sustained stretch, held for a minimum of ten to twenty  minutes or more. Holding the stretch longer and more times a day will enhance its benefits. It is performed slowly and with attention to nuance, while lying face-up on a carpet or exercise mat. 

 

Place a cervical support under the neck, as the neck and low-back curves have a synergistic relationship. A hand towel, folded lengthwise and rolled up, is perfect for this. The head should rest on the ground. 

 

The knees are bent and held together, the feet are apart, creating a tripod with three points of contact: both feet and the sacrum. 

 

Lying on your back, feel your spinal column relax to the ground. (If this is difficult and painful, try lifting the pelvis up off the ground and resting the upper back first, gradually dropping the pelvis down as comfort allows.) 

 

Begin the bridge by slowly pivoting the pelvis forward. This is called nutation. The tip of your tailbone goes down, and the fronts of your hips roll toward your feet (violet  arrows in the illustration). This begins to lift your low back in an arch. Keep pushing the pelvis slowly but determendly forward, pivoting onto the tip of the coccyx, and lift the lumbar vertebrae, feeling each segment in the arch. The third lumbar vertebra (of five) is at the center of the arch.

 

It is important to keep the ribs relaxed to the floor during this exercise. The thoracic spine, which is attached to the ribs, curves in the opposite direction to the lumbar spine.

 

As the minutes progress you can begin to slowly and deliberately lift the lumbar vertebrae while continuing the forward push of the pelvis. Lift the sacrum, then the fifth (lowest) vertebra on top of the sacrum, then the fourth vertebra, and then the third. This exercises the arch of the five lumbar vertebra. It takes some time for a dehydrated disc to drift forward through dehydrated fibrocartilage.

 

The Keystone Bridge can also be an effective solution in cases of acute sciatica. In this case, it must be performed consistently and it will likely hurt. I had a herniated disc some years ago; the pain was excruciating and relentless. Since I was already in pain and couldn’t get off the floor anyway, I managed the pain as best as I could and did the Keystone Bridge for 8-10 hours a day. It hurt, but I was fully and permanently recovered in one week from an injury that frequently requires surgery. 

 

It is advised to consult a medical specialist when suffering from a possible herniated disc. 

 

There is a more detailed discussion of osteoarthritis, sitting and the Keystone Bridge in Chapter 5 of BOOK, pages 69-85.