Biomechanics & Embodied Autonomy

GRAVITY, POSTURE, AND ALIGNMENT

Proper biomechanics means having sufficient flexibility to be comfortable with the movement of weight through our bones. Graceful posture and ease of alignment result from a finely tuned balance between strength, flexibility, and weight distribution. Biomechanical stress results from competing strategies to oppose gravity’s pull on our body. If we succumb to gravity’s temptation by slouching forward, we must compensate by tightening our back muscles to hold our spine erect. This drama plays out along the entire length of the spine – weaving between muscles, connective tissue, and nerves, eventually distorting our alignment over time.

We have twelve muscle groups that are most vulnerable to pain from postural distortions. These postural muscles include flexor muscles that forward-bend the front of the body, and extensor muscles, which run parallel to our spine and bend it backward, as well as muscles that externally rotate our extremities. The differential between strength and flexibility in these muscle groups determines the intensity of the struggle between the front and back body. When sequenced properly, bodywork and yoga are two particularly elegant systems that successively open postural muscle groups, perfecting the balance of flexibility versus strength, while reconciling our competing strategies to stay upright.

Our alignment can be read in the curves of our spine. Surprisingly, so can our emotional history. Paraphrasing Ida Rolf, creator of the somatic disciplines of Structural Integration and Rolfing: emotions express themselves as gestures, and with chronic repetition, gestures evolve into posture. Finally, posture solidifies into structure as connective tissue stiffens with age and stress. When habitual gestures harden into a dysfunctional posture, it affects spinal health and alignment.

EMOTIONAL TENSION

In addition to gravity, biomechanics is tied to emotional tension. For example, PTSD can contribute to an unrelieved sense of danger. These are some of the postural outcomes of protective hyper-arousal: neck muscles might become stiff as if frozen in an exaggerated gesture of forward staring hyper-vigilance. Nerve compression starts where the neck and skull meet, due to adhesions accumulated from unhealthy gestural head-meets-neck habits. Neck tension multiplies as clenching and teeth grinding tighten the jaw. This might make your shoulders to hike up, and you begin to hunch forward. Your upper back begins to hurt as the muscles between your shoulder blades succumb to fatigue.

As our upper body reacts to the continuous perception of danger, it is often mirrored by our lower body as chronic contracture of the buttocks, low back, and pelvic floor muscles. Our head, spine, and pelvis start to experience negative changes in their function as the alignment of these body segments gets more distorted over time. The result is constant subclinical nerve compression, which up-regulates the overall balance of the whole nervous system, producing a distinctive flavor of chronic stress. It begins to feel like we just can’t relax, no matter how long we spend lying around. The sad truth is, unrelieved structural stress eventually leads to sexual as well as digestive and even reproductive dysfunction.

POSTURAL ADAPTATION

Bodies are plastic; they adapt to the shape of our gestural and postural habits. To the experienced hand, it’s easy to feel the extent to which repetitive strain from athletic training, work habits, driving habits, etc., contort to form our posture. As dysfunctional alignment habits continue uninterrupted, the connective tissue shell around every muscle becomes stiff and impenetrable.

As an example, when clients spend too much time sitting, their hip flexors and quads will be short; hamstrings will be locked tight and stuck together from the pressure of contact with their chair. In another example, when a mother is breastfeeding, her shoulders round forward into the shape of cradling her baby. Her chest muscles are tight; the muscles between her shoulder blades feel stringy and fatigued. How do I know the muscle is fatigued? Flesh has a vibratory signature; it quivers with distinctive exhaustion when I touch it.

When assessing biomechanics, I look at each client’s overall tissue density and resilience by palpating specific areas of the body. I’m feeling for the difference between tension and flexibility in each spot. Are your muscles dense, capable, and collagenous, or softer, naturally flexible and elastic? Or are you somewhere in the middle? Knowing each client’s particular tissue density influences almost every other inquiry we will make during the pursuit of embodied autonomy.

BODY MAPPING & ASSESSMENT

Over fifty years, extensive dance, yoga, Gyrotonic, and other movement training has reinforced ease in my ability to sense inside the bodies of others – and to understand the way each body responds to the demands of life. Even when working remotely with clients, it’s nonetheless possible to assess their extent of biomechanical tension. A series of simple stretches lets me know about the joints where troubles concentrate, and pain patterns tell me about biomechanical habits ripe for change.

A biomechanical assessment session can help provide insight into the structural stress your body encounters every day. Muscular tension can be traced back to its physiologic origin. The emotional body can also be read during the process of biomechanical assessment. Issues of trust, fear of loss of control, sadness, grief, betrayal, and anxiety are carried as tension in each of the dozen most influential postural muscles. When you’re ready to understand all of the forces that influence your biomechanics, I’m here to help.

With the exception of postpartum care, work with me starts with the assessment process to identify your particular biochemical barriers to health and provide you with a most efficient map to begin your work. When you demonstrate commitment and a genuine desire to make necessary changes, there is the possibility to continue our journey together by coaching with me. During coaching, we partner to develop and refine your health practices, applying the insights gleaned from your assessment. The result is a rediscovery of your embodied autonomy, one step at a time.

If you’d like to schedule an assessment, learn more here. If you’re not sure you’re ready for a full assessment, but would like to explore some basic questions about your biomechanics in an introductory session, learn more here. To read about what others have said about their assessments and coaching experiences with me, see the testimonials.