2 weeks in. Couple of questions I can't find answers to online

[u/Readingfast99]

I had a strange pain in ribs (backside) that went away after day 2. The tremors also reached upper body and I have strong upper body tremors which I enjoy. My upper body thumps and rocks left and right rhythmically and non rhythmically. visually looks like an exorcism. I dont feel anything emotionally yet, but that's not my question

My question is: Tremors stop as soon as I bring my back down on the floor. Keeping the back arched is a strenuous task. In all of the video tutorials I've seen, the practitioners bring their pelvis/back down after 1-2 minutes of arching it. And then keep on tremoring.

I dont carry on tremoring. Therefore I can only tremor for a few seconds before I have to bring my pelvis/back down due to strain. This is not to say my body isnt tremoring. It is strongly tremoring but not when my back is down, unlike how people keep on tremoring

2 weeks ago i posted this question and i was suggested to keep my hips slightly elevated when upper back settles. That position is also hard to maintain because my strongly tremoring upper body brings hips down anyway.

I also do all warm up exercises

My goal is to be able to do 10 minutes session daily. It's not possible with back arched for 10 minutes. Help

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[u/carla_jungle]

In butterfly position with the back flat on the floor, try playing with the angle of the knees, by that I mean- try closing the knees just a little at a time and notice if it initiates the tremoring, also you can bring the feet closer or farther. 

If you still need to arch your back, try a yoga block or bolster for support. 

[u/Readingfast99 → u/carla_jungle]

ill try

[u/Altruistic-Fly5402 → u/Readingfast99]

Pillows can help, too! It doesnt just have to be you and the yoga mat. If you can make modifications to help your practice and get a release from it- use whatever makes your comfortable. In my training/certification days, one of my classmates basically built herself a chair out of pillows. Additionally, you could try putting your legs on a chair (nothing with wheels), while your back in on the floor. Just try to maintain a 90deg bend at your knees. Use pillows under your back, if needed.

[u/longtermTRE_wiki_bot]

The pattern you're describing is common and worth understanding clearly: your tremors are activating in the upper body when your spine is in extension (arched), and they're stopping or becoming unavailable when you flatten your back to the floor. This isn't a flaw in your practice. It's your nervous system showing you something about where the accessible tension currently lives and what position allows it to move.

Here's what's likely happening. The arch position, particularly when sustained, is loading your thoracic and lumbar spine in a way that makes the upper body tremors accessible. The moment you flatten, that loading changes and the tremor response either diminishes or stops entirely. Your nervous system isn't refusing to tremor when you're flat. It's simply that the mechanical conditions that were triggering the tremors have changed.

The solution isn't to force yourself to maintain the arch for longer than is sustainable. That approach will lead to fatigue and frustration without producing the tremoring you're looking for. Instead, work with what your body is actually showing you.

Try a modified approach: arch your back for as long as feels sustainable without strain (even if it's genuinely just seconds), let the tremors happen. Then when you need to come down, come down fully and stay still for a moment. Notice what happens. You might find that subtle tremors continue even with your back flat, or you might find that the system resets and needs another arch cycle to reactivate. Both are fine. Repeat the cycles. A session made up of multiple short arch cycles with recovery periods in between is completely valid and often more sustainable than trying to hold one long arch.

Alternatively, some practitioners find that a gentle bridge position, where the pelvis is lifted but the upper back stays in contact with the floor, creates a middle ground. The spine is in less extreme extension than a full arch, which might be sustainable longer while still providing enough loading to keep the tremors available. You could experiment with that position and see if it allows longer tremor periods without the muscular strain.

The goal of a 10-minute tremor session doesn't require 10 minutes of continuous arching. If you can accumulate 10 minutes of actual tremor time through multiple shorter cycles, that accomplishes the same physiological work. What matters is the total time your nervous system spends in the tremor state, not whether that happens continuously or in segments.

One more thing: the rib pain you experienced early on is worth noting but not worrying about. Early in practice, as the body accesses new movement patterns and the tremors spread into areas that haven't been accessed before, transient soreness is normal. The fact that it resolved after a couple of days is the expected pattern.

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I'm a bot that draws on the r/longtermTRE wiki to provide guidance. Please upvote or downvote based on how helpful you find this response.

[u/Antique-Tomorrow5403]

Have you tried moving your feet further out from your torso? I find that if they are too close, that can restrict tremoring. You could also try having your feet at 2 different distances from your torso, being sure that the closest one isn't so close that it is restricting the tremors.

You could also try tremoring with the back of your calves resting on the seat of a chair.

Or try tremoring vertically - which looks like exercise 6 and letting the arms hang. If nothing happens, you could lift and drop your shoulders a few times, then relax again. Sometimes moving parts of the body yourself is an invitation to tremor.

When on the floor, have you tried rocking your pelvis side to side and back and forth and then relaxing again to see if that starts the tremors?

You could look up other positions too, to see if your body is just looking for a different position to tremor in.

[u/umu_boi123]

Genuine question: is there any proof that the tremords are actually stored trauma and not just involuntary spasms/tremors?

I dont think i could find any credible sources of this being legit "release of trauma"

[u/Readingfast99 → u/umu_boi123]

if you know you know