Functional Therapy With Stuart Green At The May Fair Hotel Spa Posted by Unknown |

Spinal book sculpture by artist Bronia Sawyer

How's your spine keeping? If, like me, the last eight months have consisted of little else other than looking after a new baby and blog, well... let's just say I'm feeling pretty scrunched up from the shoulders right down to my tailbone. So obviously, I jumped at the chance to try out a new type of corrective exercise for back pain with kinesiology (the study of human movement) expert Stuart Green. In the luxurious surroundings of The May Fair Hotel Spa, the lovely Stuart started with an orthopedic assessment which involved a few interesting looking measuring instruments. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly in tiptop shape, with a couple of vertebrae in my upper back hardly moving and my head sitting too far forward. About 7cm too far forward, which came as a bit of a shock, and what's worse, for every 2cm the weight of your head doubles and puts extra pressure on your neck and shoulders. In case you think you might be suffering the same, your cheek should be in line with your collarbone (test this by hanging a necklace between the two). After a few strength tests (involving clever pressure points which helped activate and strengthen various muscles) and identifying how to properly use my deep stomach muscles, we headed to the gym to try out some of the corrective exercises – familiar Pilates-like exercises stripped back to basics, focusing on re-learning how to do initial minimal movements. Trust me, it wasn't easy, I had to try pretty hard to activate the right core muscles and move correctly. Multiple repetitions and much muscle trembling later, the goal of postural norm was firmly back in sight. Inspiring and motivating.

Training sessions are available with Stuart at The May Fair Hotel Spa. £120/ph. functionaltherapy.co.uk