Wow, thanks! Keeping abdominals firm and shoulders down does make a difference in the Supermans; I feel more like I'm working my core and less my (already too-tight) shoulders.

One thing that's worked really well for me is the concept of the "inner corset" from Esther Gokhale's book - the easiest way to engage it is to stretch up with your arms above your head, then lower them (make sure your shoulders are down and back). The muscles around your torso form a protective sheath around you, and you're standing taller.

I can't sustain this for more than a few minutes at a time because my muscles are still weak, but that's up from seconds, so I think it's working. Bonus: you can do it all the time, while walking around. Downside: You look weird stretching to the sky every few minutes. (I haven't learned to do it without that aid yet.)

My abdominals and lower back are very closely tied together, so I also have a small inflated rubber ball (about softball size) I use under my sacrum, lying down, to put some gentle traction on my spine when it feels very pinched and sore. (I usually do this to release tension before I sleep at night.) I've heard foam rollers are good for similar things.

For some time, I used a physiotherapy ball as a chair. It was pretty awesome. Annoying to have to reinflate it every week, though. I'm looking forward to doing that again when I re-build my desk this summer. It makes it easy to slide back and do a couple crunches while waiting for something to load.

--Mel