The Art Of Mastering Movement

This is a picture of your spine in a neutral position

Last week we talked about the benefits of a neutral pelvis.  Now we are at the point of discussing a neutral spine.  Are you starting to get that alignment and posture are so important to consider before you start adding resistance to the system.  You Mom was right when she told you to sit up straight or tall.  It really is all about the bones.  By that I mean the alignment of the bones.  When you have the correct alignment every movement becomes easier.

Neutral Spine
Neutral Spine is defined as the position of the spine in order to support the curves of the lumbar, thoracic and cervical spine.  The lumbar starts right on top of the sacrum for five vertebrae (low back), the thoracic are the next twelve vertebrae (mid back), and the cervical are the top seven vertebrae (neck) that connect the spine to the skull.  If you would like more information about your vertebrae and their interaction with the pelvis, skull or each other let me know and I can write something more detailed.  For now all that is necessary to know is that you have a lumbar, thoracic and cervical curve.  These curves act as a spring or rebound system to help disperse forces through your body.  Without these curves, forces would be placed overwhelmingly and consistently in the areas without curve.  Over time this could cause pain and injury.

The picture above shows a spine in a supine position (lying on your back) on the floor.  The points of the spine that will touch the floor in a neutral spine are the pelvis, mid back (around the bra line), and the head.  If those spots touch the floor when you lie down then you are in a neutral spine.  If they do not, place a towel or pillow under the areas that do not touch the floor.  This will begin to give your brain the idea of what it would be like to have a neutral spine.  As time goes by your need for these props will become less and less.

In a sitting or standing position, the neutral spine rule still applies.  If you were to sit or stand up against a wall, your head, mid back and pelvis will touch the wall in a neutral spine.  Yea, try it.  It is amazing what you will begin to find out about how you hold your spine.  During the day when you are not able to stand or sit next to a wall, just remember to stack those dots.  Stack your head, over your mid back, over your pelvis.  That is an image that will help you keep neutral and out of pain all day long.

Introduction
Week one of our Pilates has come and gone very quickly.  Just a little reminder to what we are working on this week.  We focused mainly on the alignment of your pelvis.  We started with your pelvis because it is the center of your body.  How you hold your pelvis will directly effect your legs, spine and upper body.  So, it is a good place to start. 

If you remember from class, every joint is most efficient if it is in neutral.  Neutral is your home base.  From a neutral position, a joint can move in any direction without much effort.  The problem arises when a particular joint is held in a non neutral position and the brain begins to register that position as home base.  A joint that is not in a neutral position has soft tissue; muscles, ligaments and tendons, pulling on the joint in an imbalanced way.  Over time this situation can cause injury and pain! 

Are you ready to find your neutral pelvis?  Are you trying to find it right now?  Neutral pelvis is where the anterior superior illiac spine is in line with the pubic bone.  In a more colloquial sense think the belly button over the pubic bone.  See the pictures below.

 Neutral Pelvis         Anterior Tilt        Posterior Tilt

Neutral pelvis is when your belly button is over your pubic bone.  An anterior tilted pelvis is when your pubic bone is behind your belly button, or like a swim suit model.  A posterior tilt is when the pubic bone is in front of the belly button, like a dog with a tail between it’s legs.  Neutral is the position that is the most efficient for whatever movement you want to do.  It is important to note that neutral is a range of motion.  When you find a neutral position it can move, it is not to be held with tension.

Exercises
These were the exercises that we did in order to practice neutral pelvis.

1. Pelvic Clock – On your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor.  Rock your pelvis between the belly button and pubic bone.  Stop and align the pubic bone across from the belly button.  Look and see if your belly button is really in line with your pubic bone.  This is to connect the sensation of neutral pelvis versus the reality of neutral pelvis.
2. Bridge – Starting in the same position and in neutral pelvis.  Roll up your spine one vertebrae at a time and roll down the spine one vertebrae at a time.  Roll down into neutral spine with the belly button in line with the pubic bone.  Look to see that your really are in neutral.
3. Standing – Place one hand at your belly button and one at your pubic bone.  Rock the pelvic back and forth like you did on the pelvic clock.  Align the belly button over the pubic bone.  Check your alignment in a mirror.
4. Bonus – Go to a posterior tilt, pubic bone ahead of the belly button and look at your posture.  Go to an anterior tilt, pubic bone behind the belly button, and look at your posture.  What feels most comfortable? 

Interesting, huh?

A picture of Joseph Pilates and his studio at 939 Eighth Street in New York.  His wife Clara is at the right in a nurses uniform

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born on December 8, 1880 in Monchengladbach Germany, near Dusseldorf.  He was a sickly child who had asthma and rickets.  By the  the time he reached the age of 14, he was posing as a model for anatomical charts.  This demonstrates Pilates’ desire and acumen for physical exercise and rehabilitation.  At a young age he knew how the body worked and how to support it through exercise in order to enhance ones physical condition.  His father was a prize winning gymnast and his mother was a naturopath.  These two factors also may have contributed to his sense of the physical body.

There are many versions of the Pilates’ story.  Some say that Pilates left Germany to study with a boxing expert, and others that he left Germany to be in a circus.  In either case, we know that he was in England  when World War I broke out in 1914.  He was interned during the war at an enemy alien camp first in Lancaster, England, and then on the Isle of Man.  On the Isle of Man he worked in the hospital ward helping patients rehabilitate.  During his stay the influenza pandemic of 1918 swept through Europe.  It is said that none of the patients under his care died of the disease.

After the war, Pilates went back to Germany for a short time and then travelled by ship to New York.  On his trip across the Atlantic, he meet his soon to be wife Clara.  It is not known whether Clara was a nursery school teacher or a nurse.  What we do know is that she wore a nurses uniform in the studio they started at 939 Eighth Avenue.  The studio was housed in the same building as George Balachine’s new ballet company and Martha Graham’s rehearsal space.  This is how the Pilates’ work became an integral part of many dancers’ training, and how many dancers became Pilates’ instructors. 

During this period, Pilates wrote two books: Your Health, in 1934 and Return to Life Through Contrology in 1945.  In his book Contrology, Pilates’ talks about how people living in the city and working all the time need to devote more time and thought to their physical well being.

Since we are living in this Modern Age we must of necessity devote more time and more thought to the important matter of acquiring physical fitness.  This does not necessarily imply that we must devote ourselves only to the mere development of any particular set of muscles, but rather more rationally to the uniform development of our bodies as a whole – keeping all our organs as nearly as possible in their naturally normal condition so that we may not only be in a better position to earn our daily bread but also so that we may have sufficient vitality in reserve at night for the enjoyment of compensating pleasure and relaxation (Contrology, 1945).

Pilates was always to have said that he was fifty years ahead of his time.  He died in October 1967, at the age of 87.  He died very disappointed and angry that his system of exercise never received the success he felt it deserved.  His wife Clara worked a few more years in the studio and then retired in 1970.  She lived mainly on the generosity of her students.  She died in 1976. 

Pilates left as his legacy a sense of working with the body as a whole.  His exercises that are still used today in studios, health clubs and hospitals really do help support the body to maintain it’s natural and playful state.  His exercises support the body to do any physical activity with pleasure.

Resources

0. Pilates, Joseph. Return to Life Through Contrology. Presentation Dynamics Inc. Incline Village, Nevada, 1998.

0. Lessen, Deborah.  Pilates Method Alliance Study Guide.  Pilates Method Alliance Inc. Miami, Florida, 2005.