If you practice Pilates, you know already the importance of posture.
What is balanced posture?
“Good ‘neutral’ posture: The balanced alignment of bones, joints, and muscles that minimizes strain on your support system.”
And how do we find this posture? Is it something we can just arrive at and do? I would argue that it is something that we build and have to keep practicing moment to moment.
As a Pilates and yoga teacher I encourage my clients to explore their body and especially their hips! Experiencing safe range of motion in all sides- up,down, forward, back, and side to side will help one clarify their awareness and how to establish their balance in their center! Try not to get too caught up in ‘what is right’ and ‘what is wrong!’ The hips can be complicated! We all need to feel what is best for ourselves .. It takes patience to feel and build a loving relationship with our body. Staying curious, and exploring different positions will help you understand and feel what is right for you!
Not only does…
Hips/pelvis connect our right & left side and lower & upper bodies being our focal point of physical stability.
But also…
contains our internal organs, houses the base of our spine and our psoas…symbolizing life force, personal creativity, emotional flow, sexuality, and intrapersonal relationships.
Posture is something I have been working on for a long time and being hyper mobile really has not helped my situation. That said, having tight hips, which most of us have, can also be difficult for finding balance in our hips/pelvis too. With practice and building more awareness to this area in our bodies can help one learn and recognize what a true center should feel like.
Although there is much to consider and everyone is unique and has different scenarios in their own body, I have found that attention to my thigh bone placement has been a huge support in finding my balanced center in my hips/pelvis.
It’s common for the thigh bones to be pushed forward in the hip socket when one is both overly mobile and/or have tight hips. This limits our ability to engage our back body/posterior chain, our gluteals, hamstrings, and bottom of our pelvic floor.
When I practice drawing my thighbones back in my hips, not only have I found that I have better balance but I am able to decongest and open the front of my hips/front spine, and access my posterior chain which is crucial for good posture!
So I am here to encourage you to maybe consider how your thigh bones are integrating int your hips when you stand, move, sit! It’s an ongoing practice “for how we do one thing is how we do everything!”
If you are curious how i draw my thigh bones back in my Pilates practice check out the following YouTube video and apply it to everything you do.
