Tailbone Orientation

Submitted by cjpholmes on May 14, 2006 - 1:22pm
Body: 

Hi Christine My apologies for posting this again. I'm not sure where to post and I meant to post a new question, not reply to a question.

I'm new here and very interested, primarily because my wife has been diagnosed with a grade 2 Cystocele 2 months after having our first child. She's 40 yrs old and had a vaginal birht. I'm a structural bodyworker in the rolfing tradition and the "Posture" Christine recommends is right in line with my teachings. Thank you for this valuable information. As a movement observer, I see how bad body mechanics, like tucked tailbones and flexed knees, lead to all manner of pelvic issues. Unfortunately we get this misguided information from our yoga and pilates teachers. Add to this the "slump" posture that seems part of the western chair-sitting culture and we're in for trouble. We see much more natural posture in traditional cultures where people are squatting and carrying things on their heads.

Two things - first please tell me if I have the mechanics right. Then I have a question about the tailbone. As I understand this work, the femurs draw back in the hip sockets as the hamstrings lengthen. The knees are extended but not locked. The thighs can internally rotate slightly to engage the musculature arising from the medial aspect of the femur (iliopsoas, pectineus). This drawing back of the femurs has the pelvis anteriorally tilting and the top of the sacrum angling into the lumbars. I have folks press into their feet (through the heels and the roots of the first 3 metatarsals) and lift through the pelvis to feel the wall of myofascia behind the organs. The belly stays soft. Does this sound right?

Now, the tailbone is poking out. At this point it is possible to keep the sacrum horizontal and offer some downward pull to the tailbone. The myofascia wrapping the tailbone can be drawn down and the distance between the top of the sacrum and the taibone lengthens. The key is to keep the sacrum firmly directed into the lumbars and draw the tailbone down only as far as it will go without losing the sacral tilt/lumbar curve. (This is very nuanced and not easy for beginners, but once folks begin to get some awareness of their pelvis this gets easier.) I find this helps to relieve the low back pressure. Does this make sense and is it desirable to counter prolapse and cystocele?

Finally, have you explored Jean-Pierre Barral's Visceral Manipulation techiques? He (and other visceral techniques) work to manually tonify organ viscera. Also, the mechanics of Gyrotonics looks very interesting and potentially applicable.

Thank you - Chris.

Christine

May 14, 2006 - 6:39pm

Dear Chris,

Thanks so much for your support. Mine was the first voice I was aware of to speak out against certain yoga and Pilates postures and it’s wonderful to have my concerns validated. The long answer to your questions could be a book, but let me just give a few of my impressions in hope that you may find them of some value.

We had a long-time yoga teacher suffering with prolapse join the forum a couple of years ago who was more than a bit incensed that I did not agree with her practice of correcting her student’s tadasana (mountain pose) by reaching around from behind and pulling the tops of their thighs back while simultaneously pressing their tailbone down. Your tailbone correction sounds quite similar.

First of all, the posture I teach does not tip the iliac crests anteriorly, but simply corrects any backward rotation. Rather, the tops of the ilia move medially and slightly inferiorly to wedge the sacrum into its most horizontal (“angling into the lumbars”) position. Concurrently, the tailbone is lifted and the ischial tuberosities moved laterally, widening the distance between hip joints, and pulling the femurs back. Long hamstrings allow this movement by a blending of their fibers with the sacrotuberous ligaments, which in turn connect to the bottom of the spine. The same fascial stretching sensation you teach is experienced in this posture and is described as a very pleasant “proud holding.” It’s essential that the feet stay pointed straight ahead when walking, because outward rotation of the thighs will collapse natural pelvic stability. It’s a useful experiment for women to place their palm flat upon their sacral area while taking a few steps with feet pointing straight ahead. Suddenly point your toes outward and feel your tailbone immediately drop. It is very pronounced.

Generating a strong and stable turnout of the legs and feet at the hip joint has extreme value however, as it develops a different set of muscles to provide a wide base of support for turning direction, such as when we are walking straight ahead and abruptly turn to go back the other way – instant “2nd position!” It’s my deep belief that we were only able to evolve the female body enough to carry the human race forward by dancing. Dancing develops important muscles (and probably helped shape bones) we cannot build any other way.

In this posture the tailbone is not “poking out” but is allowed to take a completely neutral position, created primarily by traction originating at the top of the head. Are you aware that the female coccyx is more horizontally positioned than the male? This is because our hip joints are spaced more widely apart, allowing a deeper lumbosacral angle. I’d like to understand why you feel it would remotely help relieve low back pressure for the long run. Our spine is essentially horizontal and we need to recondition our core muscles to once again reflect this reality. Pain and pressure are part of the work initially, but as you can see, women who are successful with the posture become pain-free.

I never thought I’d be promoting “core strengthening”, having become rather sanguine after Pilates rhetoric, but the necessity of a strong, yet stretched and supple core cannot be overemphasized in terms of improving pelvic organ support. The difference resides in how we define and exercise our “core.”

Weak and flexed core muscles not only pull the organs toward the pelvic outlet, but also have other serious implications for women with prolapse. The lumbar plexus of nerves that control bowel movement are embedded in our core muscles. Lack of proper muscle balance in this area slows circulation, tissue infusion, and metabolic waste removal. These very important nerves become impaired and chronic constipation can result. Tight core muscles also rotate our thighs outward and reinforce negative posture. I also believe the arches of our feet, through their capacity to rebound energy, work to relieve tension on the core muscles so they do not carry all the burden of lifting our lower extremities.

I think visceral manipulation has extreme promise, especially for women who have been c-sectioned. I haven’t a lot of use for gyrotonics, because I believe the most valuable and healing movement possible is done on our feet, free of machines, in the proper shape, and set to music.

Humbly,

Christine

cjpholmes

May 14, 2006 - 7:41pm

Thanks Christine,

I think principles of "the Posture" are valuable for women and men. I see prolapse and cystocele, and also all kinds of hip pain, bursistis, knee issue (which will benifit from taking the femurs back) and on and on that arise from shortened hip flexors, tucked tailbones, etc. Its an uphill battle because everyone is so concerned with avoiding hyperextension of the knees and lordosis that they've developed these painful movement patterns. They're sold on soft knees and tucked tailbones but they don't get better.

I'm most grateful to one of my teachers, Don Van Vleet, who is an amazing bodyworker and formed ballet dancer, for helping me understand these movement essentials. And now I can add you as a teacher. I've ordered your book and look forward to reading and applying it. My wife is really really bummed out about her bladder - she's so fit and this birth has rocked her body. She too has been overcoached in the tailbone tuck and flexed knee, but she feels a strong need to heal. We'll keep you posted on her progress.

If I understand you, its a lengthening of the spine through the crown of the head that keeps the spine extending. (By the way, I am in total agreement with you on shoulder placement which I read in another topic. I would add that the shoulder blades draw down without externally rotating the humerus - similar to your guidance to keep a wide shoulder girdle.)

As far as the tailbone goes, the idea I have is to narrow the pelvic bowl from front to back. Drawing the pubic bone back and pointing the tailbone down (without altering the sacrum-just gently pointing the tailbone down), while extending upward through the spine. This creates a contraction of the perineum, extension through L5/S1. This is what I think of as core extension (or core strength. But I hear you saying that we're looking for a relaxed tailbone with extension through the crown. And I also hear you say that the sacrum is naturally horizontal for woman. Do we think about the tailbone at all? Do we just let it be and focus on bringing the sacrum to neutral (horizontal) and properly algning the shoulder girdle and extending through the crown? And what about the gluteals? If the pelvis returns home, do the gluteals just do what they were born to do?

Thanks again,
Chris

Christine

May 14, 2006 - 8:35pm

Hopefully you’ve downloaded my articles (in the Resource section), which explain more about the science of the posture than I have time to repeat here. It’s the most amazing thing, Chris, but if you incorporate one or two aspects, the rest have a tendency to fall into place.

I grew up – at least since adolescence – walking with my feet pointing way out, like a duck. This is often referred to as a “ballet walk”, and is thought by many to be aesthetically pleasing. One of my dearest personal memories was one day catching a glimpse of my footprints in the sand after having developed and worked on the posture for several months. This was before I had added the feet instruction, because I did not realize their contribution. My breath was literally taken away when I saw prints of my own perfectly straight feet! I actually wrote about it here and one of our early members, Sybille, responded that she had a similar experience.

If you point the feet straight ahead, relax the abdomen, keep the shoulders down and broad, and pull up through the crown of the head, the rest sort of takes care of itself. I sometimes tell women to stretch into the posture by pushing the navel down over the pubic bone while pulling the head up by slightly tucking the chin. This is an exaggeration, but it gets us into the maximum stretch that aligns everything as it should be. Because of the way the vertebrae cantilever, the spine is at its maximum length when its curves are present. It feels odd at first, but women tell us over and over again how natural and comfortable it becomes.

Christine

P.S. The pelvis is not a bowl – that is an ancient mistake in its orientation. The female pelvis, including its contents, has been blown down and back from the abdominal wall over the course of childhood and adolescence. Not supporting this L-shaped torso and trying to narrow it by one means or another has created only problems. In its most supportive configuration, the pelvic diaphragm is maximally stretched from pubis to coccyx, while being narrowed across the middle by the pull of the ischial spines. A lifted tailbone is essential to this process. The gluteals work synergistically with the latissimus dorsi to squeeze the wedged sacrum into place from the outside. Support this natural design by building the buttocks muscles and lengthening the hamstrings.

cjpholmes

May 15, 2006 - 12:19am

Thanks Christine - this is helpful. Yes - the feet are key for me and those around me. And I use most of what you teach. The tailbone piece was missing, and I can see its important! I was misguided by the bandha practices of hatha yoga, at least in the way I learned them. I've always been uncomfortable with contracting the perineum but never thought it through. But I've been practicing totally relaxing my tailbone for the past few hours and can see its wisdom. Interestingly, there seems to be a natural extension through the iliopsoas and the pelvic floor when the tailbone is relaxed. Yes - I've downloaded your articles and look forward to your book.

Thankfully,
Chris

Christine

February 11, 2015 - 10:34pm

Hi SH,

I'm sure your lumbar plexus is fine ;-)

But in this old thread I was trying to underscore the importance of giving room to all the vessels that course through the vertebral passages by maintaining natural spinal curvature.

You mentioned malposition of your uterus earlier today as a possible cause for your ongoing discomfort. Surely you've been examined for retroflexion?

Christine

Surviving60

February 12, 2015 - 8:11am

I guess I'm a bit confused now, because I have always understood (from this Forum basically) that this was just another way of describing a uterus that is prolapsed or prolapsing. I'm thinking back to many of Louise's posts where she described hers as correcting itself after several years of the WW work. Is there a difference between retroflexion and retroversion? - Surviving

Aging gracefully

February 12, 2015 - 8:26am

Someone can come and correct me if I am wrong, but I have seen both terms used, and yes Louise gives the best explaination of moving the uterus from that leaning back position to the antiverted best.

Sierra

March 10, 2015 - 6:51pm

Fascinating thread! Here, here…!