Morgan Talevich, who lives in Louisiana, was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) in 1994 at age 6. She works through a series of adaptive upper- and lower-back exercises with Coach Damon to support posture, strength, and muscle activation.
Disclaimer: The information in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or other trained medical professional before beginning any new exercise program to ensure it is safe and appropriate for you.
Transcript
What’s up, guys? Coach Damon V with my girl Morgan here. We’re here with another rare move. This one is an upper-body and upper-back-specifically, and lower-back-specific exercise.
These are the WTs. We’re going to show WTs first. Then I’ll show a little bit more advanced version.
So what Morgan’s going to do first — her thumbs always up. We’re going to go elbows to the hips, squeezing back, back like to the sky and to the hips. And then out to the T. Let’s watch Morgan do it.
“Three more — W, yeah.” So we see everything’s coming off the ground. So we’re squeezing up. We got the rhomboids, and then elbows to the hips, so we can get the lats engaged. Then from here we’re going to T’s — out.
“Yes, this one’s amazing.” Rear delts here. Low rhomboids here. Traps. Back to the W. “Perfect. Keep them up. Those hands up. There you go. Squeeze and squeeze. And back to the T.”
This is such an amazing exercise as far as posture goes — keeping that chest up. “And then rest.”
One note here — a lot of our rare disease athletes have fusions in the spine, so Morgan’s spine is fused. This is why you don’t see a lot of flexion in the spine. But that doesn’t mean that there can’t be flexion in the muscles. That doesn’t mean that the muscles can’t activate. So even if you have a spinal fusion — all good.
“Morgan, let’s show the W.”
“All right. So — oh, excuse me — the Y. So we’ll start back up in front. Yes.” So this Y is a little bit more advanced, right? And remember, even though Morgan’s hands don’t come off the ground, doesn’t mean that it’s not getting activation.
“So the Y — up. Hands up.” I could feel her traps engaged. “Let me go back to the W.” Yes, I could feel her whole upper back fired up. “T. Back to W. And Y — straight, straight, straight. And rest. Nice work, Morgan. Great job.”
