by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

Essential for good posture is proper alignment of the joints through the correct usage of muscles. When the foundations are weak, superficial muscles have to tighten to hold an unbalanced structure up. Traditional exercise tends to train the larger muscles groups. These larger muscles tend to be the superficial muscles. A superficial muscle is an anatomical term describing muscles towards the surface of the body.

The foundations are the deep muscles. These muscles are the ones closest to the bones and joints. Some are small like the back muscles: multifidus and rotator cuff muscles. Others like the transverse abdominus is like a corset around the torso.

The warm-up of our Pilates at Movements Afoot consists of connecting to the deeper muscles first before the superficial. Core support is about enhancing the spine. Core support is providing the spine, the spinal cord and the organs with the necessary space to function well.

Core support allows us to move against gravity to be upright and move. It is three-dimensional. It is the coordination of the abdominals muscles, pelvic floor, and the back muscles with the limbs. This support allows the spine to discover its own natural length with its necessary curves, protect the spinal cord and create space for all the organs to function well. When the spine is habitually compressed, it puts pressures on the disks of the vertebra, the spinal cord and nerves and all the organs from the diaphragm, digestive organs, etc.

Underlying core support always is dynamic alignment and breath support. They are a team. Sometimes a client can connect to one part of the team first before they discover the other team members. Through breath one can discover the deep muscles of the transverse abdominals.

The hollow is when the transverse abdominus engages. Being like a corset, this muscle pulls the torso contents in. Breath is one of the best ways to encourage this action. There are physical connections between the diaphragm and the transverse abdominus. The breath causes intra-abdominal pressure. This pressure is like a hydraulic system. Inhalation causes the diaphragm to move downward. This downward movement of the diaphragm can lead to relaxation of the abdominals and pelvic floor. The exhalation releases the diaphragm upward and engages the pelvic floor and transverse abdominals

THE HOLLOWING

TO START
Lie on the back with the legs bent. The hands are placed one inch below the navel on both sides.

THE BREATH PATTERN
1. Inhale into the lower ribs. Visualize the diaphragm floating downward. This downward movement is widening the lower torso with depth in the back
2. Count the duration of the exhale as the belly deflates. (Start with 8 counts. An advance breath would be to increase the count and the deflating of the belly.) Each count the belly should sink deeper towards the sacrum. This is the hollow. The belly deflates helps the diaphragm rise with the exhalation
3. Repeat two more sets

SPINAL HUGS
The multifidus are small muscles close to the spine. They are like tiny flying buttresses on each side of the vertebra. Flying buttresses are the structures that hold the walls up of the old stone churches.

Close your eyes and visualize your multifidus hugging your spine. Perform this same thought sitting on a ball.

Now try to combine the hollow with the spinal hug. This foundation should have made you taller. If your spine had shortened, superficial muscles were engaged.

Lesley Powell, CMA, Director of
Movements Afoot

My teaching Bartenieff Fundamentals™(BF) led me to Pilates. I was teaching classes and private sessions based on BF and conditioning to injured clients at Dr. Backrach’s Center for Osteopathic Medicine in 1987. Teaching Bartenieff Fundamentals™ to an injured population taught me the power of this work. My colleagues in my certificate Laban/ Bartenieff program were such great movers that I did not understand the importance of BF. Working with clients led me deeper into the concepts of BF and their potential in assisting neurological repatterning.

Because of my success with working with clients, I was invited and paid to learn how to teach Pilates at JRW Physical Therapy in 1990. The physical therapists at that time were having difficulties with traditional Pilates teachers working with an injured population.

A majority of the cases of the clientele of the physical therapy practice were suffering from repetitive stress disorder. Most were journalists who spent long hours in front of the computer. Because their arms/hands were in trauma, a lot of the Pilates exercises were contraindicated. Bearing weight on their hands especially on the footbar was painful.

Within my Pilates sessions, I would work with the clients on the fundamentals of the hand-scapula relationship. First goal was to get ease of motion of the scapula and then slowly adding resistance. The beauty of the Pilates machines is the feedback proprioceptively that they can give the client. I would keep the load light with springs until the client could work pain free.

Video of pre-thigh and thigh lift

I am going to take the thigh lift and how it can change the Pilates workout. The thigh lift is an important action of all movement: gait and dance/sports activities. It is the dancer’s passé, the initiation of the kick in sports, yoga, fitness and most importantly our walking. The ability to move our legs and move us through space is essential for everyday activities. The freedom of the thighbone in the hip socket with the strength of the leg and torso muscles take us into standing, walking and more complex movement actions. A lot of problems of back, hip and knee pain can be a cause of poor patterning how the thighbone moves in the hip socket, pelvic stability and lifted to propel us in space.

A poor thigh lift disconnects to the deep use of the abdominals and the psoas will be lost. Other muscles will have to take over for the lack of this connection. In the Pilates repertory, the thigh lift fundamental will teach the differential of the thighbone from the pelvis.

Teaching the principles of the pre and thigh lift is a wonderful link to the single leg stretch of the Pilates mat. The thigh lift is an important principle to understand for all abdominal training and the Pilates mat. One must stabilize the pelvis to connect to the correct mobility of the femur. The psoas alone will flex the hip. Without the counterbalance of the abdominals, the pelvis is pulled to an anterior tilt and/or unleveling. A short psoas will also bring the pelvis in an anterior tilt. A tucked pelvis will make the psoas lax. Stabilization is about finding quietness in the spine with length as you mobilize the legs.

Let’s now look at footwork and the relationship to the thigh lift on the reformer. In Footwork, one lies supine on the carriage with the feet pressing on the foot bar. The carriage glides in and out with flexion and extension of the legs. Footwork taught well is a wonderful link to gait. In traditional Pilates, the tucked pelvis can kick out the hip extensors when the legs are extended.

With teaching of the thigh lift fundamental with footwork, the client gets a better connection to the legs. The femoral fold is soft while the correct sequencing of the quadriceps and hamstrings come into play to move the carriage with the legs. If there is a contraction around this fold, one could be overusing other muscles such as rectus femoris, some certain fibers of the adductors and even the back muscles. When the back becomes involved, this gives the appearance of the hips hiking, anterior/posterior tilt (depends on the client) and/or rotating.

Leg springs or modified short spine takes the pre- and thigh lift to a fuller range of motion. The springs or straps give a wonderful spatial intent in counter balance to the hollowing and the spine lengthening in the opposite direction. With pelvic stability and this counter tension, the legs mobilize with a different connection in the hip sockets.

New research is coming out now of the importance of the pelvic floor, transverse abdominus and multifidus. Irmgard Bartenieff was revolutionary. In the section about the fundamentals in her book, Coping with The Environment, she was already addressing these concepts. This book was published in 1972. It is possible to have ease of motion and dynamic strength in the Pilates repertory.

BF and Pilates is about connections. BF can enrich Pilates not only in biomechanical principles but taking the repertory in new spatial demands.

Lesley Powell, Director of  Movements Afoot

POSTURE: IMPROVING MOVEMENT

One’s posture has organized around one’s habits.

Awareness, improving flexibility and strength are important. Sometimes tightness of certain parts of the body prevents one from improving one’s alignment. Tightness is also reflective of weakness. If a building begins to sag, there are supports that have weakened.

Putting a new support at the shortened length will create other problems. This is why it is important to work on mobility and strength together.

Maintaining mobility of the joints is key to health and function. If a joint is rigid, the body has to organize around this. This will cause imbalances of function. I am amazed in my travel how very little people move. Simple movements performed daily will keep us healthy.

I would love people to wiggle their spines a couple times a day. Here are simple movements to do daily. These movements should always be performed with ease of motion and comfort. We have shown the exercises in sitting. They all can be done standing as well.

Office Stretches

By Lesley Powell, Director Movements Afoot

The past month I have been working with my family members with back problems. Unfortunately none of the medical profession addresses their posture. When a car’s wheels are out of line, it affects the entire mechanism. The same concept about misaligned posture will affect all movement. When a body part is stuck, the body organizes around that. It is important to rule out certain medical conditions, such as herniated disks and nerve pain. Exercise can make certain conditions worse without medical attention.

When a client comes to me with back discomfort , I look at their posture and then how they use their legs. When the back is misaligned, most times the legs are not able to do their job. A lot of people use their backs to lift their legs and shift them forward. One client to walk upstairs was leaning her torso forward to propel her forward. The legs and pelvis should shift the body forward up the stairs.

HOW DO YOU MAKE CHANGE IN POSTURE?

Awareness is key. Teaching your client how they to sense their body is very important. Their brain thinks that their poor posture is okay. One needs to retrain how their body thinks and sends messages to their muscles and bones. Posture is dynamic. It is not a fixed position, but a constant organization around gravity.

An awareness exercise is not about quantity but about quality. Do not perform these awareness exercises fast. Find time to become aware where your sacrum is in space in standing.
AWARENESS #1

• Stand with your legs parallel.
• Place your hands on your sacrum.
  

  Your sacrum is a triangular bone in the back of the pelvis.
  The tailbone is at the end of the sacrum.

• How is your sacrum facing?
  

  The top of the sacrum should be level on a horizontal line. The bone should feel as if it is standing up in your pelvis. When the sacrum is out of line, you will feel the bone rotated and/or unleveled.

• Move the sacrum to be leveled and upright inside your body.
  

  How does this make your legs and back feel? Where does this place your head?

• See if you can bring this awareness in your day while you wait in line, talk standing to someone, brush your teeth, etc.

AWARENESS #2

• Stand with your legs parallel and place your hands on your sacrum.

• Move the sacrum to be leveled and upright inside your body.
  How does this make your legs and back feel? Where does this place your head?

• Stand on one leg and keep the sacrum fairly quiet?

• Repeat to the other side.

Observation:
When the legs are weak, the sacrum will rotate and/or unleveled a lot. Use the wall until you have developed the awareness and strength to stand well on a leg. Increase the length of time on one leg when your form is great. Standing on a block will challenge balance more.