Movements Afoot’s Blog
A BodyMind Think Tank – Taking fitness to the next levelArchive for walking
Neutral Pelvis-A place to travel to & fro
by Lesley Powell
Anthony Carey wrote an excellent post The Myth of the Neutral Pelvis. In movement of a healthy body, all of our bones have some kind of movement. When a bone becomes rigid, there will be consequences in the body.
Historically, neutral pelvis came important after years of tucking the pelvis in exercise and dance. But neutral pelvis is really only apparent in static movement such as standing, sitting and lying supine. Once you move, there is movement of the bones of the pelvis even in simple plies (bending and straightening the legs).
When is it important to know neutral pelvis in your client’s body? When you observe your client in their starting static positions of standing in parallel, sitting and lying, supine and prone. Such as in standing, observing my client’s posture gives me information how they organize their bodies. If their pelvis is rotated and/or unleveled, this organization will probably show up throughout their workout, walking and other movements.
Why is the pelvis not in neutral in static positions? You need to look up and down the body to understand their pattern. It could be their legs, habitual use of one side, injury, poor use of the hip sockets, etc. Every week I take a Hanna class with Laura Gates at Movements Afoot. In the beginning of the class, I observe my habit of uneven rotation of my pelvis and ribcage. No matter what the theme of the class, Laura takes us through a series of exercises that mobilizes the spine in many planes. At the end of class, my walk has balanced rotation of the spine.
Warming your client up in many planes is a great way to bring balance to the spine. Pelvic clock, originally a Feldenkrais exercise, is a wonderful way to articulate the pelvis in many planes gently. I also look how people do thigh lifts. Many people are not using the hipsocket well which will reflect into the pelvis with either tucking and/or hip hiking.
True fitness should give our clients and ourselves a freedom of walking and ease of motion.
Working with clients with Parkinson Disease
by Lesley Powell
I had worked with Physical therapists Ruth Teitel and Nicola Weiner with their experience with clients who had Parkinsons. The workout should include mobility, stretching, strengthening the extensors, and improving one’s gait. With some clients with Parkinson, there is a bent spine.
From the website; www. Parkinson.org, the reasons for a stooped posture is unknown. Some think the rigidity of the muscles are the cause. This posture affects the movements of the hip, thigh and back muscles.
Try it: Stand up and bent at your waist with your spine in a “c” curve.
Now walk and see how it affects your walk.
Suggestions for Parkinson included the following;
- Work in seated and prone positions as supine often increases rigidity and flexed posturing
- Emphaze trunk, lower and upper extremity extension as well as rotation
- Encourage slow and rhythmic movement once moving has been initiated for a specific sequence.
- Use rhythmic and auditory cuing to help establish movement
- Avoid fatigue.
Especially with kyphotic postures work on mobilizing the spine, with emphasis on extension, rotation, and side bending. Also include exercises that include back and hip extension, improving hand-scapula relationship and hip mobility.
New Forks – Moving On and Well
by Kimberly Fielding
When I think back three years ago… I can’t believe all the things I couldn’t do.
My joints were congested and so was my mind. I had no space in my body for movement and freedon, thus no space in my mind for positive thoughts and emotional well-being. My movement practice at Movements Afoot has given me space…has decongested me. I move with freedom. Confidence has filled my new space in my mind. Of course there are always times of emotional set backs, but I know staying with my Pilates practice will ground me, and keep me loving my body at any size.
I love the new Jenny Craig add. Queen Latifah, the current spokes person, emphasizes herself as being a size healthy. That losing up to 5-10% of your body weight and increasing your movement activities decreases your chance of Type 2 diabetes and other life threatening illnesses.
Even prior to my 80-100 pound weight gain I always had a negative tape playing in my head. I knew I had to finally stop the negative dialogue in my mind if only for a little while to start positive changes in my life.
I realized that moving from the inside out was giving me the chance to get to know myself. I never knew what that meant. I never knew that you could really be nice to yourself and really be your own friend…but you can.
• It is so liberating to quiet that negative voice
• to focus on my tailbone
• to actually narrow across my hip bones,
• to feel my back widen from my breath
• to feel my strong hand scapula connection as I open the reformer carriage in control front
• to finally be able to press myself up from the reformer for control back
• to execute long back stretch and twist
• to lift my leg up high while feeling my femur bone roll in the socket and keeping my hips level
• to be able to do a hand stand and a walkover again.
That is the way I have been getting to know myself. My true self. The self that I wake up with and go to sleep with, the self that is with me all the time. A self that is a size healthy and always getting healthier as healthy as I can be.
Why wait and shift? Weight shift – The Art of Moving
by Doris Pasteleur and Lesley Powell
Edited by Dr. Martha Eddy
Movement is the shifting of the body’s weight on different surfaces. Different parts of the body may shift on the ground or surface. However the weight shift is the propulsion of the center of the body, the pelvis through space to cause locomotion or a change of levels and locomotion.
Building blocks: A good weight shift is the coordination of the body to (1) ground into the floor (surface) and (2) to move the body in a specific direction in space. Before we can move up, we must have the foundation of down, grounding. Grounding is a basic foundation. Without a foundation, there can be no building. Weight shift involves the coordination of dynamic alignment seen in the sequential leverage of our bones from toe to head, organized by the muscles, and accompanied by the fluids and organs moving in synchrony.
Propulsion: When a person releases his or her own natural body weight into the floor, it helps the brain estimate the amount work needed to coordinate the necessary push off to shift the body into space. Even when pulling a heavy load successfully involves having a person push her or his feet into the ground first. An improper weight shift puts undue pressure on the spine and superficial muscles of the limbs.
Pelvic Shifts: Irmgard Bartenieff divided the concept of weight shift into two building blocks of movement, pelvic shift forward and pelvic shift lateral. Of course this fundamental action includes multiple aspects, for instance the pelvic shift forward includes a pelvic shift back. A healthy gait has elements of both the forward and lateral pelvic shifts.
Weight shifts enable level changes from lying down to sitting to standing. They are the building block for locomotion – traveling across space. There is a constant changing relationship of weight shifts from one body part to another, a dynamic dance.
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