Have you ever had a Postural Analysis done? In my experience it consists of being told "this shoulder is higher" or "your head is forward" and generally feeling like a big ol' failure. The main thing that comes across is that Something is Wrong With Me, and the remedy is shrouded in mystery.
A personal example: In the past I had worked hard to understand the use of "Postural Analysis" (in trainings through Pilates, orthopedic massage, neuromuscular therapy, etc.) but I could never make sense of how to make it truly helpful. Aside from being told what is Wrong, there really wasn't much information about: specifically why body parts being lined up Wrongly is even a problem, nor what to do about it.
I'd been told multiple times that from my knees on up my body was too far forward in relation to my ankles.* "And? What's the problem with that? And?? What do I do about it? Should I just hold myself like that?" ("If I knew how you wanted me to stand I would've stood like that. It's not like I can't!") Until I studied with Katy Bowman, I found no satisfying explanations to questions like those. ("It's just information for later," was the most common answer.)
A personal example: In the past I had worked hard to understand the use of "Postural Analysis" (in trainings through Pilates, orthopedic massage, neuromuscular therapy, etc.) but I could never make sense of how to make it truly helpful. Aside from being told what is Wrong, there really wasn't much information about: specifically why body parts being lined up Wrongly is even a problem, nor what to do about it.
I'd been told multiple times that from my knees on up my body was too far forward in relation to my ankles.* "And? What's the problem with that? And?? What do I do about it? Should I just hold myself like that?" ("If I knew how you wanted me to stand I would've stood like that. It's not like I can't!") Until I studied with Katy Bowman, I found no satisfying explanations to questions like those. ("It's just information for later," was the most common answer.)
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Alignment is not Posture. Posture is not Alignment. (Katy Bowman said that.) |
* (In this case the answer is to keep my weight more in the heels, which is simple but not easy, and leads to more questions! These questions do have answers.) |
HOW I THINK ABOUT ALIGNMENT
Alignment assessment gives a picture of whether our soft tissues are balanced enough around our bones and joints so that we can move in all the ranges of motion that we need to maintain basic cellular health. It isn't about moving around like a robot trying to hold a certain alignment, it is about having healthy mobility, and mobilizing stagnant areas in our body.
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What's it like to assess alignment? Firstly, you just stand and see how easily (or not) you can line up particular landmarks simultaneously throughout your body (e.g. specific spots on ankles to hips, pelvis to ribcage, and so forth).
‣ Almost all of us have unbalanced areas that are too tense or otherwise disconnected to allow standing in alignment, and that's what Restorative Exercise is for: it consists of exercises that help learn about and restore your whole body alignment. Often just learning about what our bodies should be able to do is such a mind-blower and an eye-opener that you can make some amazing changes right away;* and then the Restorative Exercises (= alignment exercises=corrective exercises) themselves are also evaluation tools, along the way towards bringing in the mobility and strength that we need for natural healthy movement.
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Most of us are more or less in the same boat of not being able to stand easily in alignment, setting us up so that even our most earnestly-meant movements can build up friction, adhesions, and blind spots in certain areas. Why we're in this boat is a big question, with a lot more than just one answer. The broadest answer is that we don't live the way we did when humans were evolving, so we aren't getting the kinds of movement that built and nourished this human form.
What to do about it can start small with little adjustments and exercises, can get bigger with changing footwear and habits, and can get ever bigger by bringing more and more movement and aliveness into the way we live our life. |
 Patella Release
* Such as: Can you move your kneecaps up and down at will? If you can, you have a head start. If not, you can learn how!
If it's hard for you to drop your kneecaps DOWN, it means that they are always UP, which means that your quadriceps muscles are always tense and your pelvis is likely thrust forward. (And then your quads have to tense - to hold you up!) |
"Exercise" is not the same as "Movement"
KATY BOWMAN AND NUTRITIOUS MOVEMENT™
Katy and me, 2017
I've been studying since 2011 with biomechanist Katy Bowman, and been certified by her as a CPT- Restorative Exercise Specialist since 2013. Katy's alignment paradigm (which does have some important differences with others I've studied) helps make sense of and fills in holes I perceived in my other body-related studies.
What started out as Katy Bowman's Restorative Exercise Institute with an emphasis on corrective exercises, in 2015 morphed into Nutritious Movement™ -- along with Katy's evolution in thinking, emphasizing natural movement as a way of life and each person's "Alignment" in ever-broader philosophical meanings.
A basic maxim of Nutritious Movement™ is "Move More, Move More Of You."
I will directly help you with the "Move More Of You" part, and I also can help you figure out how to "Move More," in ways that are often surprisingly easy to accomplish.
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What started out as Katy Bowman's Restorative Exercise Institute with an emphasis on corrective exercises, in 2015 morphed into Nutritious Movement™ -- along with Katy's evolution in thinking, emphasizing natural movement as a way of life and each person's "Alignment" in ever-broader philosophical meanings.
A basic maxim of Nutritious Movement™ is "Move More, Move More Of You."
I will directly help you with the "Move More Of You" part, and I also can help you figure out how to "Move More," in ways that are often surprisingly easy to accomplish.
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EDITORIAL:
Looking at your alignment is not a value judgement. Sometimes people feel like it's about what's Wrong with you. No, don't do that! Let it be about what intrigues you.
It is about your own birthright. If you want, you can move toward restoring for yourself more of this physical alignment and "natural movement" (and small shifts can make a big difference). But really only if it intrigues you at any given moment - to the extent that YOU are drawn to, knowing that none of us are ever going to be Perfect anyhow! Any one of us may have other circumstances that matter more, right now or in this lifetime. Of course that's up to you.
PLUS it's important to keep in mind that there are always multiple factors and even various levels of reality (reality=how you see things) that can affect whatever is going on.
It's just that if you're in pain, you might be surprised how many ailments are caused at least partly by relatively simple mechanical misjudgements or just misinformation, that you can improve or even solve with mechanical adjustments. (Like something bent in the wrong direction and if you just knew about it you would have been bending it in the right direction all this time!)
It is about your own birthright. If you want, you can move toward restoring for yourself more of this physical alignment and "natural movement" (and small shifts can make a big difference). But really only if it intrigues you at any given moment - to the extent that YOU are drawn to, knowing that none of us are ever going to be Perfect anyhow! Any one of us may have other circumstances that matter more, right now or in this lifetime. Of course that's up to you.
PLUS it's important to keep in mind that there are always multiple factors and even various levels of reality (reality=how you see things) that can affect whatever is going on.
It's just that if you're in pain, you might be surprised how many ailments are caused at least partly by relatively simple mechanical misjudgements or just misinformation, that you can improve or even solve with mechanical adjustments. (Like something bent in the wrong direction and if you just knew about it you would have been bending it in the right direction all this time!)