More spaghetti muscles in this
group, but they are shorter than those muscles described in Week #9.
Did you have a turkey for the holidays? Did you cook the turkey
neck? I usually boil it to make the gravy base, then take the meat
off for the cats. If you use the neck meat, then you know that these
muscles are very short and thin. Not surprising--they anchor the vertebrae to the
hips or head, and also anchor the vertebrae to each other in small
groups, a few vertebrae at a time.
They also flex and extend the trunk in
small segments, plus rotate the trunk and neck at the spine. (Next
time you have a raw turkey neck in your hands take a closer look.)
So they help us stand tall when we ski. But most importantly, they
help us rotate our trunk and neck at the spine. They help us turn
our head to the left or right to look for traffic on a busy slope
without turning our shoulders—or we can activate these muscles to help us keep our
shoulders facing down the slope while our feet turn under us. Therefore, they are
essential to that counter-rotation that is the mark of advanced
skiers.
How to get them in shape:
Same exercises as mentioned in Ski
Muscle of theWeek #9, with one very important addition:
Prone side bends: Lay on
your back on the floor. Move both legs about ten degrees to the
right. Press your shoulders in the same direction, so that your body
tries to form a crescent to the right, and hold for a few seconds.
Release and repeat on the left.
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