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Lower back, upper back, neck, hips and shoulders

Sphinx: Classic

A key therapeutic extension pose that gently opens the front of your body and creates space in your lower back, helping to relieve compression and improve posture.

Spinal Mobility30 to 120 seconds
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How to do it

  1. 1

    Lie face down with your legs long

    Legs about hip width apart, tops of the feet on the floor, forehead resting down to start.

  2. 2

    Bring your forearms under you, elbows below your shoulders

    Forearms parallel and pointing forward, palms flat. This elbow position is what sets the height of the pose.

  3. 3

    Press down and lift your chest

    Push the forearms into the floor to lift your chest, letting the shoulders slide down away from the ears. Your hips and legs stay heavy on the floor throughout.

  4. 4

    Keep your head in line and look forward

    The head follows the line of the spine rather than tipping back.

  5. 5

    Stay for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, then lower

    Come down slowly and rest. For a gentler version, walk the forearms further forward, put a folded blanket under the chest, place a bolster under the pelvis, or shorten the stay.

What to watch for

Sensation travelling further down a leg while you are in the pose. Sensation moving back towards the middle of the body is fine to stay with, but anything spreading further away means come out.

Ways to adjust it

  • Reduce depth
  • Low forearms
  • Blanket
  • Blanket under chest
  • Gaze forward cue
  • Neutral head
  • Bolster under pelvis
  • Reduce hold

If this one is too much today

Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.

Other ways to do this movement

Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits. See all Sphinx Pose versions in one place, ordered from gentlest to strongest.

Before you try it

Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.

Also part of sessions for

SciaticaDisc herniation

Each of those explains what the condition is, what the published guidance recommends, and where this movement fits.

One movement is a start. A session is the thing.

A few questions about your body and how it is today, and Vinys builds a session around it, including which movements to leave out.

Start your first session

From the clinically authored Vinys movement library.