Moving Air
By Dominika Borovansky-Gaines

This morning I had my first colonoscopy, per the recommendations for someone age 50.  Everything went well and I am completely healthy.  But only minutes after I walked out of the surgical center, I began to have very sharp pains in my stomach.  Trapped gas is a common problem following this procedure.  Sitting was not comfortable, standing worse and lying down did not ease the pain fully.

I decided to get down on the floor and work on abdominal release, an exercise part of the REx for digestive issues.  This exercise is useful for long-held abdominal tension, for those times you feel gassy or if you are constipated.  Within moments of releasing my belly fully (see bottom photo), the trapped air exited in a long, tuneful wind.  And, voila!, the pain was gone.

I highly recommend this exercise if you habitually suck your belly in to appear slimmer, wear belts or tight-fitting undergarments –Spanx!–or other compressive clothing (yoga compression wear counts too).  And especially if you have recently had a procedure such as mine.

Belly Release

Confessions of a Leaner

Lisa’s True Confession
Part 1

My name is Lisa Perry and I am a “leaner”. I have been a leaner as long as I can remember. Though I have been taught many disciplines and techniques that require me to “stand up straight”, I will lean every chance I get. I have become so strategic in my leaning that I can actually lean without having something to lean against. My leaning seems harmless at the moment but what is the true cost? If you look close enough, most of my shirts have a small hole where my pelvis meets the counter tops. So I spend more money on shirts. But seriously, other than damaging my shirts I am also silently damaging my spine, feet, pelvis, hips, knees, shoulders, ribs, hands, jaw, and much more. I’ll start with the lower half of my body.

The Lean

My pelvis has a lot to do with my center of gravity, so by pressing it forward towards the counter or over my toes, I am putting constant pressure on the front of my hip joint. Continuously sending my weight forward requires my hip flexors (psoas specifically) and quadriceps to work nonstop to keep me from falling forward, slowly wearing away the cartilage and fraying the tendons and ligaments in both the hip and knee joints.
My feet are also victims of my forward placed pelvis. My toes are constantly gripping the ground; working like little kick-stands to keep my body weight from continuing too far forward. Helping my 10 small toes are my calves trying to pull my weight back. The fascia in the arches of my feet suffers as it is caught in the tug of war between my toes gripping and my calves clenching, causing plantar fasciitis.

With my pelvis placed forward, my hamstrings are passively tightening helping my over-tensed psoas to tuck my pelvis under (posterior). My tucked pelvis passively shortens my pelvic floor, gluteals, and lower abdominals. These shortened or tight muscles are not short because I over-use them and they are strong, they are short because muscles never allow themselves to go slack. As I shorten the distance between muscle attachments, my muscles reset their resting lengths. Along with my passively tight muscles in my pelvis, I have also over-stretched and weakened my spine extensors in my lower lumbar spine. This means that not only do I not have stability at the tail end of my spine but I also am lacking it in my sacroiliac (SI) joints and lumbar vertabrae. I am now at risk for low spine injury such as bulging or herniated discs and nerve impingements. I can also add all pelvic floor disorders, including organ prolapse and incontinence, to my risk list.

Does my leaning habit mean that I am doomed to suffer from all of these ailments and more? No, but most likely I will acquire some of them. Honestly, I already battle with SI instability, hip pain, and plantar fasciitis. It is this pain that has brought me to the work that I do today. What can I do to break this habit and continue a high quality of life free of pain?

I can be aware. The more I can catch myself leaning, the more I can work to correct my alignment. I practice my stance as many times as I can remember a day. Standing in line, teaching, washing my hands, cooking, washing dishes, carrying my daughter, etc… are all moments where I check in with my alignment. I might only hold onto my corrected alignment for a few seconds, but the more times I spend a few seconds in a better alignment, the more my muscles remember how to hold me there and they continue to gain balanced strength.

What about you?  Are you a leaner?  Leave us a comment with your thoughts!

Your Hamstrings Belong to Your Front Body

By Dominika Borovansky Gaines

Having recently returned from the Muscles and Meridians workshop with Dr. Phillip Beach, http://phillipbeach.com/index.html, an Osteopath and Licensed Acupuncturist from New Zealand, I am experimenting with various bits of new information that resonated with me. I am most intrigued by the fact that during embryological development the limbs buds spiral as they grow.

Early in our development, we are brain, heart and spine. As the fetus develops, the arms encircle the heart (which shrinks in size) and then cross to close in external rotation. Meanwhile the legs begin open in external rotation and then fold in to 90 degress of internal rotation. According to Beach, the tissues of the back of the legs–hamstrings and calves–are part of the ventral/front body while the quads are part of the dorsal/back body, deriving from the glutes and lower back. Since the quads are required for the force- generating movements of traveling uphill or climbing stairs, it makes sense that they belong to the power muscle groups of the glutes and our adductors and medial hamstrings innervate in to our pelvic floor and become contiguous with our lower belly. (Here is another article with nice illustrations http://judithbrowncpd.co.uk/Embryological Development of the Lower Limb2.pdf)

So, the legs SPIRAL out of the pelvis creating a Figure 8 with the torso, a familiar idea to those with GYROTONIC® experience.

With this concept, the movement of the legs in GYROTONIC methodology takes on a whole new feeling. I’ve personally understood for quite some time the nutation and counter-nutation of the sacrum and the function and coordination of the legs in this motion as they externally and internally rotate. But thinking of the hamstrings as belonging to the lower belly softens this movement and creates an even more reflex-driven movement.

I have experimented with cueing this concept in two ways. The first is to simply think of the back of the legs as connected to your front as you walk. I also experimented with this idea in simple curl-ups: think of the hamstrings as belonging to the front of the body as you roll up. Instead of the bracing, there is a feeling of em-bracing, of hollowing. One client remarked, ” That was the most wonderful image! That was the best roll up I have ever done!”

Walk the Walk: Gait patterns explained

Have you ever thought about the way that you walk?

For most people, walking is an instinctive activity—I mean, how hard could it be?  Putting one foot in front of the other doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that requires thought or effort…  In actuality, walking correctly (in alignment and with the proper use of musculature) utilizes more brain and muscle power than you would think.  There are so many aspects to consider and coordinate—weight placement, structural alignment, reciprocal arm swing, muscle intention— that it is easy to succumb to passivity.

BUT, knowledge is power!  In a paper titled Walk the Walk, Kinesphere instructor and Restorative Exercise Specialist™ Melissa Smith addresses her community members and explains the importance of maintaining properly aligned gait patterns.  Filled with information that is applicable to all, the piece, linked here, does a wonderful job of breaking down the mechanics of proper walking (gait) patterns not only for flat ground walking, but also for uphill and downhill gait as well.  A great “cheat sheet” for walkers everywhere!

For a chance to practice your newfound gait knowledge, join us for our FREE Restore and Walk Event this Saturday, November 16 at 7am!  Meet staff member Lisa Perry at the corner of Central/Bethany Home Rd in the church parking lot for pre- and post walk alignment work and a 2 mile walk-in-alignment experience along the Murphy Bridle Path.  For more information or to sign up, call 602-532-3111 or email Lisa at lisa.perry@kinesphere-studio.com.  We’ll see you there!

Stance is your foundation…

Your foot and ankle alignment are critical for the well-being of everything above. Prolapsed arches lead to bunions, knee and hip problems, low back pain and neck pain. Learn to properly align your stance and you’ll notice a significant difference in your overall well-being.

Hands On:  Shoulders

Keeping the clavicle wide and the scapula protracted ensures that the shoulders remain supple and uninhibited. A lack of strength in the supporting musculature of the shoulder girdle, which is greatly affected by the placement of the shoulder blades on the rib cage and the movement–or lack thereof– of the ribs in breathing, is a frequent cause of most shoulder injuries.

Proper Alignment and Technique

Side lying work allows you to maintain your neutral pelvis more easily.

WELCOME TO ALIGNED IN MOTION!

Here you will find contributions from the staff at Kinesphere Center for Movement Education, including movement exercises to incorporate into your daily life, articles on alignment principles and links to other movement practitioners with whom we feel aligned.

My first entry is an introduction to Restorative Exercise™. As you may know, we hosted a Restorative Exercise™ Specialist certification at KCME in June in which six of our staff participated. Our interest in the program began a few years ago while reading some intriguing blogs from Biomechanical Scientist Katy Bowman, the founder of the Restorative Exercise Institute and the Aligned and Well™ program. As each of my instructors made comments on something read or experienced from one blog or another, I wondered if we might take the certification course as a group to create a common,science-based foundation for all of our other teachings. The certification program was the culmination of a six-month journey studying Whole Body Alignment (WBA), learning about cellular regeneration, human anatomy, physics, geometry and specific exercises to address common ailments of our 21^st Century lifestyle.

In our collective experiences, we have always encouraged our clients with “homework,” exercises to do at home to strengthen the core, alleviate chronic back or shoulder pain, that aching neck, etc.. But as a group we did not have the same exercises, nor the same language. The brilliance of the Whole Body Alignment program is that the basic 50 exercises encompass a range of movements that we as humans all need for optimal function. Many WBA exercises are similar to Pilates and GYROTONIC® work, but there is one significant difference: the use of 25 Alignment points which emphasize the importance of geometry in skeletal landmarks. Through our own experiences of clarity via Katy’s work, we are even more confident that we can help you to maintain a strong, supple body, retain and/or attain better balance, and reduce your overall stress level. (A longer list of the benefits of this work are available by clicking here).

If you are not experiencing the benefit of this work in privates with us, we encourage you to come and take a group class. We presently have two weekly Whole Body Alignment classes: Lisa Perry teaches Saturdays at 9am and Alex teaches Thursdays at 5:30pm. We are also offering ½ hour RES mini-sessions.

Thank you for being a part of our community—whether in person or as part of our online community, for supporting us on this journey and for continuing to speak with your friends and family about our studio and how our work has helped you.

In joyful, healthful movement always,

Dominika Borovansky Gaines, Owner

GYROTONIC is a registered trademark of the Gyrotonic Sales Corp and used with permission.