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Lower Back Pain Causes & Solutions The Diamond Press

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The Diamond Press:- Start Position
  1. Lie on your stomach with your feet hip width apart.
  2. Make a diamond shape with your arms by touching your finger tips together just under your forehead.
  3. Anchor the scapulas.
The Diamond Press:- Action
  1. Breathe in and Zip and Hollow
  2. (Breathing out): Apply the scapular anchor, and tuck your chin. Lift your head just 3 cm off the floor. Keep the back of the neck long - Really make and effort to lengthen your head away from your shoulders!
  3. Breathe in and hold. Keep the stomach zipped and hollowed - imagine there is an egg under your navel and you do not want to crush it. (Once you are stronger, you may hold for a total of two full breathes).
  4. (Breathing out): Keep the spine long while lowering your head back onto your hands.
© Bruce Thomson, EasyVigour Project
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The Diamond Press:
Start Position DiamondPressStrt
Action
DiamondPressFin
What it does
  • Works the Serratus anterior, which is one of the "scapular anchor" muscles, and which is often weak.
  • Correction of Humeral Anterior Glide: The Diamond press may cause your shoulder to click or "graunch". Assuming it's not painful, take it as a good sign. What is happening is that the head of the humerus bone is moving backward in the shoulder joint to sit in its correct location, away from where it can impinge on the acromion. If you have shoulder impingement pain, this exercise may help to correct the likely cause.
Comments
  • The perfect antidote to staring into a computer screen all day!
  • The scapular anchor is being worked with the arms above the head and hands pushing "forward", which is a movement not commonly used in every day life.
Watch Points
  • Hollow that abdomen!
  • Stay long from the tip of the toe to the top of your head!
  • Keep looking down at your fingers!
Reference
  1. Shirley A Sahrmann: Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes; Publ. Mosby 2002
  2. The Official Body Control Pilates Manual Available from: http://www.bodycontrol.co.uk/