Finding Connections in the Body
It's always interesting to have a new revelation about how our bodies work. You'd assume that after living in my body for over 30 years, doing Pilates for 17 years, practicing other movement styles for over 20 years, and studying Kinesiology for 10 years, that I would have learned everything about how my own body works. But there's always more to learn as the body adapts and changes.
1. Recently while biking, I realized how my gluteus maximus and piriformis muscles activate readily, and my quadriceps fatigue, yet my adductors and hamstrings aren't recruited unless I focus to consciously activate. I don't bike clipped-in so I don't easily have the pulling upwards part of the pedal stroke, however when focusing on it during the cycle the pull can initiate my cadence.
2. In my Pilates session the other day we were doing upper back extensions on the Wunda chair. Prone extensions are challenging for me to do with proper length and support since I can so easily sway into extreme lumbar flexion. We noticed I was not fully reaching through my legs, unconsciously trying to protect the low back. So, we placed a small pad between my inner thighs and knees. Immediately, trying to keep the pad from slipping, my adductors and hamstrings fired on, the whole posterior chain activated, and both legs were able to lengthen and reach which created even more length through the low back and strength through the upper lift.
3. Similarly, over the summer, when we focused on Long Spine Stretch and Cadillac side-lying leg springs I was interested in how much work I felt in the adductors and hamstrings more than all other muscles, as I lengthened through the body, trying to lower the whole shape with control to the mat. The muscles that were fatigued first for me in these exercises were the adductors and upper hamstrings.
In these three exercises, I realized a missing link integrating my hamstrings and adductors. From this realization, I can now focus consciously on the posterior chain in all my movements to better integrate the entire kinetic chain through the body. As humans walking upright and facing forward, we tend to be focused on our front. Everything we do during the day is within a 2-ft range in front of us: reaching for an item on a shelf, washing our hands, typing on the computer, driving, eating, texting, cooking. It's all in front of us and within the range of our torso. For this reason, we tend to favor the quads, abs, biceps, psoas, etc., the muscle groups of flexion and forward motion.
However, the entire kinetic chain must work as one integrated unit. Can you lift your arm forward from the back of your shoulder to integrate the lats and serratus muscles? That back-arm connection is a major component of shoulder support. Can you walk using the glutes to propel you forward? The glute-hamstring pocket supports the hips and all of our movements in all directions. By focusing movement to initiate from the posterior chain instead of the common default of the anterior chain, we can increase strength throughout the body, and decrease the likelihood of overuse and repetitive motion injuries. However, most people can't simply tell their bodies to move forward from their back. In this way, a Pilates practice utilizing feedback from the springs and pushing and resisting teaches the body to move more efficiently, and over time the body adapts to do so in new strength and integrated connectivity.
As a classical dancer, my body is trained for external rotation and extreme mobility. If I allow my body to do what it wants, my posture would naturally settle in an extreme anterior pelvic tilt, lumbar hyperlordosis, knee hyperextension, elbow hyperextension, and anterior rib flare, which altogether are known as Lower Crossed Syndrome. In the frontal plane, my whole kinetic chain is well trained to be aligned for "proper" ballet posture with head held high, ears over shoulders, over greater trochanters, over the lateral malleolus. However in the sagittal plane, there is a lot of malignment from hyperextension which works for ballet, but not for longevity, strength, or pain control.
Over the years I've reigned in my flexibility in order to reduce hyperextension, rib flare, and compensatory hyperlordosis to reduce pain and increase physical strength and power. Recently, I've realized I have previously missed an opportunity to focus on the posterior chain, instead of simply trying to decrease hyperextension by restricting my movement instead of lengthening into my capabilities. I now am focusing on increasing my movement to my full potential while focusing on oppositional forces, and pausing the movement when it begins to "dump" into hyperextension. Instead of staying in a smaller range to restrict and control, I press while I pull, I reach forward while reaching back, and the combination of support structures from all directions creates more strength and grounding through the body to support the extreme range that could dump down, unsupported into the joints and ligaments.
We all have movement habits that develop over time. Each workout we do we should be consciously focused on our bodies, what we feel, and how we move. Instead of exercising mindlessly, focus on your movement. Notice how it's generally easier to recruit the frontal, superficial muscles, and then try to feel the movement from the back of the body working as well. Take a moment to feel your body in space now, how you're sitting or standing, how you're breathing, how your posture has settled while looking at your screen.
As we move more in our bodies we can continually learn more about ourselves, our individual weaknesses, and our motor habits. As a dancer, who studies and teaches movement full-time, I am still learning about my body. We change and adapt as we move more and in different ways, getting stronger than being able to do even more. Our bodies hold our history, our pain, our emotions, and yet we tend to ignore them. Reach a bit farther, breathe a bit deeper, and notice the space you can expand into behind you. Activate that posterior chain!