Pelvis Orientation in Dance vs. Whole Woman Posture

It *is* important to discuss this, with the aim of understanding what is natural, and what is not.

Neutral pelvis was invented by Henry and Florence Kendall, back in the 1940's or1950's. It is a position for the pelvis based on geometric measurements of the pelvis. Christine explains it here, http://wholewoman.com/blog/?p=1074. The two points of the pelvis between which the line is drawn, the anterior superior spine and the posterior superior iliac spine, seem to have been chosen for a random reason, or at least the reason for choosing these two points is never explained satisfactorily anywhere. Nevertheless a culture has built up around it in the fitness and dance industries.

A lot of ballet teachers use the concept of the neutral pelvis (but some, who understand why ballerinas get arthritic hips, do *not* use it.) but it has no place in Wholewoman work, be it standing, sitting, dancing, walking, or whatever. The concept of neutral pelvis is simply irrelevant, because there is no scientific evidence of its significance.

If anyone can find a scientific proof of why the measurements made by Kendall and the concept of the neutral pelvis are grounded in sound anatomy, I would love to know about it. Please post it on the Forums so we can all have a crack at understanding it.

The only place I have ever seen a neutral pelvis illustrated realistically is in a recumbent x-ray, where gravity is acting through the body from front to back, straightening the lumbar spine, not acting downwards through the legs and feet. Standing with a neutral pelvis is very contrived. It is quite difficult to do unless the knees are bent, because of the extension of the hip joints that is necessary, and the pubic symphysis has to stick out the front of the body. Unless the person has little fat and little muscle bulk it is very difficult to palpate the superior posterior iliac spine, because it is covered in dense muscle and connective tissue. So it is extremely difficult to accurately pinpoint it and measure it.

Christine's ballet workout is done in Wholewoman posture, or should I say, with Wholewoman principles in mind. Our bodies are rarely in WW posture as described, because we are always moving, and often that movement involves using one half of the body to do an action, and the other half responds to balance it out on the other side. This means that weight will often be eg, mostly on one foot, or may be on the heels momentarily, or the ball of one foot momentarily. When we walk, the two sides of the pelvis alternately nutate and counternutate as we change our weight from one foot to the other. There is a lesser degree of bilateral nutation possible when we are standing. We even counternutate the pelvis bilaterally in the exhalation stage of firebreathing!

It could be said that there is a neutral elbow, with the forearm extended straight out the front, with 90 degrees of possible extension downwards and about 90 degrees of possible flexion upwards. However, when we let our forearm rest in its own version of neutral it rests about 5-10 degrees from six o'clock. Gravity is what determines neutral, not the halfway point in the range of motion of a particular bone.

Gravity is what determines the natural position of the pelvis, with the forward and downward force exerted by the abdominal contents on the lower abdominal wall, and by intraabdominal forces generated by breathing; balanced by the slightly-in-tension functional length of the abdominal muscles and their antagonists, the gluteal muscles and back muscles.

The position of the upper attachments of the abdominal muscles (the bottom of the rib cage) determines the curve of the belly. The angle to horizontal of the T12/L1 joint (the top of the lumbar curve of the spine) is related to the degree to which the chest is lifted, which is in turn related to the strength of the upper body musculature.

The position of the pelvis is no more or less important than the overall relationship of all the bones and muscles to each other.

But the pubic symphysis being the lowest point of the pelvis, the pelvic brim being pretty vertical and a significant lumbar curve are hallmarks of correct WW posture, whatever the upper and lower body are doing at the time, as long as the movement is symmetrical about the saggital axis.

Where the movement or position is not symmetrical about the saggital plane, the pelvis is often 'twisted'. The half on which weight is mainly borne will be correctly nutated, and the other half will probably be somewhat counternutated, but it varies with the movement, momentum and where forces are directed.

The bottom line is that whatever we are doing, the pelvic organs need to be resting on one or both pubic bones and the lower abdominal wall whenever intraabdominal forces are high. In this position they are out of the way of the top of the vagina and cannot force themselves into the vaginal space, or down into the vagina or vulva.

I hope this clarifies somewhat why the Kendall/Pilates neutral pelvis needs to be largely ignored, and why we should endeavour to use Wholewoman posture in every loaded movement we do.

Ask more questions for clarification if I have not explained it clearly, and follow the link above, to
Christine's article in the Post. Sorry if I have used too much anatomical language.

Louise

Hi everybody, I was wondering if anyone knew what to do about the recline that dental hygienist put you in to clean and polish your teeth. I Christine says in her book this position is in the danger zone so what can we do???? It does take a while for Hygienist to get done with her procedures plus she checks for any cavities. Please let me reply. You guys are great. I'm so glad to have you.

Thanks,
Jaylove

Hi Jaylove....I wouldn't worry too much about things like that. Take a little something to put in the small of your back if you can. I doubt the hygienist would be able to make any other adjustments for you (I always worry about THEM - the angle they work at, looks like prolapse in the making!). So, for those occasional things that crop up during the year, just go with it and do some extra exercises afterwards to make up for it. - S60

Hi Monica,

I'm working on the second part of my blog post, so won't elaborate here, but Louise has given you a great description of why the WW pelvis is in the anatomically sound position. We are certainly not going to convince ballet to give up grand battements and arabesques! You are right that it is an aesthetic (historically male!) art form that requires extreme positioning using musculature that can't be accessed fully with the lumbar curve in place. I would say Pilates studios are utilized by ex-ballerinas because they are seen as a popular and hopeful alternative to orthopedics. From my perspective, what they really need is to be taught how to position their center of gravity between the midpoint of both acetabula, which we are describing as the WW posture.

Hey S60, thanks so much for replying. I guess your right - not much we can do about it but just go with it. I am a worry-wart - thats for sure. I appreciate your advice. I just receive my DVD "First Aid For Prolapse today". Excited about getting into it. Do you have it??? Thinking about ordering the Yoga DVD. I'm not sure which one though.

Jaylove

Jaylove

Hi Jaylove - I started with the book, and worked just from that for the longest time. Finally I got the video and wished I hadn't waited so long. Quite recently I got the First Wheel yoga vid. My problem is that reading is easier for me than finding the time and place for regular exercising (but I'm working to change that). Meanwhile, I like to watch the video's and memorize moves to use throughout my day. My faves are the overcrossed backbend and those deep plies while rising on the toes. And firebreathing of course.

Surviving, I would rather read than exercise too. Perhaps I need a book stand with built in reading light, mounted on the front of my elliptical machine, with the power for the light generated by my 'pedalling'? Now all I have to do is work out how to repel the mosquitos on the veranda where the elliptical machine lives, and I can spend my evenings reading and getting fit at the same time!

Yes Mamp, I too suspect that people continue with ballet at elite level because they are genetically able to. The rest of us drop out. ;-( However, we are not talking about doing ballet at elite level, simply using ballet exercises because they will help us build strength and flexibility for better posture when done according to Wholewoman principles.

You might find anteverting your pelvis more now is very difficult but I suspect that if you continue to strive to become stronger in your upper body you will be able to lift your chest more, which will increase your lumbar curve, which will in turn antevert your pelvis bit by bit, and help your legs and feet to position themselves more optimally and prevent unnecessary damage to your knees and feet as you get older.

Yes, knock knees and flat feet will make it more difficult to achieve classic WW posture too, but there will be improvements that you can make within the limits of your personal anatomy. The lumbar curve is critical to this. Nothing else is going to improve your knees and feet more.

Yes the hip joint is further forward in neutral pelvis, but our hip joints need to move backwards and sideways too, particularly for walking and squatting. Moving the legs backwards from neutral pelvis is far more difficult than moving the legs backwards with a WW pelvis position. It is easy to lift them forwards from either because muscle strength is the limitation towards the front, not the position of the hip joint.

As the hip joints are forward of the centre of gravity of the body in neutral pelvis, then neutral pelvis is not neutral at all! Think about what neutral means, not geometrically, but functionally.

(In fact, the acetabulum on the hip joint moves around a lot in space as we move one leg forwards, or backwards or sideways because all the weight is on the other leg and the pelvis on the side with the lifted leg is at a movable angle, with the pelvis actually twisted at the sacroiliac joints and the pubic symphysis. Neutral pelvis is a somewhat theoretical model, only existing in standing position, where is is very difficult to achieve anyway.)