Category: sacrum

Aging & changing

by lebureauetc, posted in Pilates, sacrum, YOGA

SmartFLOW training – April 2024 – Tulum Mexico

At the biological level, aging results from the impact of accumulation of wide variety of molecular and cellular damage over time.  This leads to gradual decrease in physical and mental capacity….the diversity seen in older age is not random…. “   – World Health Organization

This past weekend, I took a course named, – “FUNtional Movement and SmartFLOW yoga” with my teacher Annie Carpenter and another SmartFLOW teacher and doctor of physical therapy; Brenna Barzennick, PT, DPT.  The workshop explored the 7 functional movement patterns:

squat

hinge 

push

pull

lunge

twist 

gait 

These functional movements are a part of our daily life and done well, these movements can support healthy aging.  We explored how walking involves all of the 7 functional movements! Can you feel all the above actions when you are walking? Interesting fact – We learned how walking speed can predict the probability of functional decline in older adults.  Keep walking with good attention to posture:)

During this training, we learned that the hub for human movement, as well as all the above functional movements is called the lumbar-pelvic Hip complex (LPHC).  The “LPHC” consists of the lumbar spine, sacrum, pelvis, femurs(thigh bones), and includesof 35 muscles!  Some of the larger muscles in the “LPHC” include the gluteal muscles, erector spinae group, hip flexors and extensors, hip adductors and abductors, spinal rotators, abdominal muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, and latissimus dorsi. 

The heart of this training was to communicate and show how complex these basic functional movements are as they involve an intricate and sometimes tangled part of the body.  Furthermore, there needs to be both participation and coordination of all 35 muscles to support the movements in a balanced way. 

This was a great workshop! I felt grateful for the knowledge that I already knew as the information was being lectured and discussed among the group of yogis.  The Lumbar Pelvic Hip Complex is essentially the Pilates powerhouse:).  More reason to practice Pilates!!

In this post I would like to highlight how the practice of Pilates, with a well trained teacher – me:), and other practices done well day-to-day, will support us in all we do, and help us age with strength and vitality.  

Some examples of everyday activities:

squat/hinge- toileting, up and down out of a chair/car/tub, picking up items on the floor or gardening, putting on and tying shoes.

push – pushing a shopping cart/stroller/vacuum, sliding furniture, opening doors.

pull –opening doors/cabinets/drawers, pulling a suitcase, lifting body up from the floor.

lunge – stair climbing, walking up hill, kneeling gardening, picking something up from the floor, cleaning house.

twisting –  reclining behind you, tolieting, cleaning body, turing to look while standing/standing/sitting, cooking/dishes.

gait – the human gait depends on a complex interplay of major parts of the nervous, musculoskeletal, and cardiorespiratory systems.

 As all functional movement forces are generated and transmitted through this ares in our body.  

What is Pilates really?

Pilates =contrology = art of control = mind controlling your muscles.

What do we want the muscles to do/be?

Pilates wants us to find balance and have a balanced support of our structure on all sides to promote optimal alignment.

Powerhouse muscles that support our pelvic center (LPHC) are key to finding balance:

As mentioned above; there are 35 muscles supporting this region in our body….the following are just some ‘larger player’…

inner & outer thighs 

hamstrings

gluteals

quadriceps

erector spine muscles

transverse abdominals, 

oblique abdominals

pelvic floor muscles

psoas muscle

The above powerhouse muscles is just our ‘lower powerhouse!’  There is a ‘secondary powerhouse’ (also known as the ‘secondary hub’) that focuses more on our shoulder girdle and upper body.  However, the pelvis (primary and lower powerhouse) is our first priority as it connects our 2 halves – lower and upper bodies.   If our pelvis and hips are out of alignment there will be consequences to both our lower and upper body, where as if we have an imbalance in our shoulder girdle or secondary powerhouse it is less likely that it will affect our lower body too.

consider Pilates movements with a functional movement framework! 

If you are familiar with the Pilates method, you can probably agree that Pilates it is no joke!  The practice of Pilates is hard work and requires the practitioner to be attentive in body and mind, start to finish!  Body awareness, including better understanding and appreciation of the 7 functional movements, coordination, balance, steady breathing, strength, mobility, and patience are just some of the many benefits one can achieve with steady practice.

I have practiced and taught Pilates for close to 20 years and I have learned a lot about my body and other bodies that I have been fortunate to work with.  Reflecting back, I realize that many of my issues and my clients difficulties are a result of pushing too hard and/or trying to perform a posture without considering or understanding the functional movement within that posture.  Moreover, bodies change and sometimes we, including myself, forget to listen and connect to our changes big or small and want to do what we did yesterday, but forget to consider how we are in the present.  I am grateful that I now have more awareness of the 7 functional movements, from my latest training, that will remind me to balance my ‘situations’ – pushes with my pulls, my spacious shoulders, and my blossom with my squeeze etc etc.

If you have read my blog in the past, you know some of my past ‘situations.’  I have been through a lot and have much more to share, but that is for another post:).  My ‘problems’ did not happen overnight or from a few practices, they were poor habits and unconscious tendencies that I neglected in my life for years and those same habits were showing up in my Pilates practice!  As my teacher Annie Carpenter likes to say, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.”  

I was content to practice in ‘auto – pilot,’ for several years not just in Pilates but in life too.  I caution when people associate Pilates only to a set of exercises or ‘systems’ in classical Pilates, for example.  Pilates is much more than just exercises. Pilates is ‘whole’ mind-body exercise!   The important thing is ‘HOW’ you do it.  More importantly than the ‘how,’ is your ability to change your how when your body and life circumstances change. Like everything the only constant in life is change and so it is a constant practice to stay present to your whole body so that you can adapt your practice to your changing body. 

Ruthless = Pilates (especially practiced on the mat) 

Mat Pilates, especially is not an easy practice.  Many individuals think that practicing Pilates on the mat would be easier than the reformer.  In contrast, mat Pilates, is a whole lot harder to practice as you are without an apparatus that gives you boundaries, support and leverage.  The mat offers no support except the floor and sometimes a wall and some minimal props such as a ball or magic circle.  It takes a lot of awareness to understand how to connect our many pieces!!  Mat Pilates is demanding and dare I say ruthless!

If you have taken my Pilates mat classes in the past you may already know that I start my classes with variations on functional movements to warm up the body before just starting down on the mat with the 100!  I like to start with standing warmups.  That said, there is nothing wrong with starting a mat Pilates class on the mat, in fact its a great way to connect to your body and feel your back and how it connects or doesn’t connect and sense how your arms and legs connect to your center.  However, starting on the mat can also be deceiving, especially for the beginner, as you may forget to maintain  your posture and alignment when you are on the ground and gravity is not weighing you down (as it is when you are standing).   Often, I find myself saying – “try not to fall asleep!”  I obverse especially legs and arms  “falling asleep.”  Remember in Pilates, the arms and legs are just extensions from our core/powerhouse, so there should be some effort in keeping those limbs “awake.”  The ground offers support, but you still need to be aware and maintain your alignment as if you are still standing with your two feet on the ground!

Everyone needs to tweak their own body differently to find their best alignment  but, generally speaking you want to encourage yourself to be alert in your body feeling the center of head, over center of throat, over center of heart, over center of pelvic floor, over center of knees, over center of ankles, with your 2 feet simultaneously grounded and arches lifted. 

Pilates is an incredible method that can enhance your function in daily life!Change is inevitable, and you may have to adjust and adapt your practice with age, but having more awareness of the functional movements, will help us accept and be okay with changing our habits, to find more balance and ease. 

I am grateful to my personal journey.  All my challenges and hardships have only made me stronger.   My practice of Pilates feels better and better the more I listen, accept and adapt my practice to my changing body. 

Curious to try a Pilates mat class with me?  Here is the general outline to how I structure my Mat Pilates classes – 

5 minutes  – “arrive in body”  general body awareness and simple stretches to get us in our bodies

10 minutes – “functional warmup” some simple functional movements and mobility exercises for spine, shoulders and hips.  Think squats, lunges, planks, cat/cows, shoulder circles, hip circles etc..  

40 minutes – Pilates mat flow encouraging ideas from our functional movement warmup! I regularly apply the idea of a  ‘squat’ to the various exercises in Pilates…this way we can remind ourselves that we are practicing this method to feel better and move better in life…not just perform in mat class!!

End standing in our ‘optimal posture’ to feel the efforts of our practice:)

Current Pilates mat classes with me:

Saturday 9-10am at ATD studios.

Thursdays 9-10am Le Bureau Pilates.   

* Starting in August 2024, I am excited to offer my Thursday mat classes at my new home/Le Bureau location.  I will have a bigger space as well as more ‘wall room’

“Mother tucker”

by lebureauetc, posted in Pilates, sacrum, tucking, Uncategorized, vagus nerve

A ‘mother tucker’ is someone who is stuck in a ‘tucked’ position.

-Brooke Oberg

Yes!  I was a “mother tucker” for many years and still do catch myself tucking when it is not appropriate!  If you have read any of my previous posts you already know this and probably have a good idea why too.:)

Not to say that ALL tucking is bad.  In fact, some exercises you need to tuck to support the round back position.  However, its important that when you do ‘tuck’ you are aware of how it is affecting your sacrum. 

Our sacrum is a vulnerable area in our body and it’s worth our efforts to pay attention to how we integrate this area  in our movements  so that we can find more optimal alignment patterns and feel more freedom and move with more ease in our whole body.  Remember its not all about what we do, instead its important HOW we do it and how we are incorporating our ‘whole body’ in our actions!

I hope the following will bring more awareness to your sacrum.  I hope this awareness will convey how sacred our sacrum is and helps us consider how we manipulate this area in our body.

The sacrum in human anatomy is a large triangular  bone at the base of the spine.  It is situated at the upper back part of the pelvis, and connects our 2 pelvic halves(hips).  The upper part of our sacrum connects to our lumbar spine and the base of our sacrum connects to the tailbone/(coccyx).  Thus the sacrum connects the upper and lower body(heaven and earth); all our bodies weight pass through this location.  Lastly, it is a concave shape as it is curved upon itself and the base of the sacrum, the broadest and uppermost part, is tilted forward.  Meaning for optimal standing and seated posture, the low back/sacrum should be in extension – ‘in and up’ as opposed to being stuck in a tucked position.  

Some other interesting things about the sacrum…

-The Romans said this part of the body was “sacred” or “holy” as it was used in sacrificial rites in protecting the genitalia (which in ancient times were considered sacred).  In yogic spiritual anatomy, the sacrum is the home of Kundalini, a feminine – serphant like energy that sits coiled at the base of the spine.

-The sacrum is known to be the keystone of our pelvic bowl!  It is in the sacrum, where life is created, just think about that!!  Also, many of our vital spinal nerves start  in the sacrum and the sacrum is one end of our nervous system that connects all the way up to our brain via the Vagus Nerve.

-Too add to this complex area, the sacrum is the location of 1 of our 7 energy centers of our body (svadhisthana chakra).   This location of our sacrum governs our sensuality, sexual intimacy, our ability to give and receive pleasure, and simply be creative  and in the ‘flow’ of our own life.  When this area of our body is blocked or stuck for any reason, perhaps being to sedentary, injured, feeling not safe, etc, or in perhaps tucking too much….it can create many imbalances, upset our ability to connect to our parasympathetic nervous system, and create feelings of isolation, low libido, and detachment.

Now that we have more knowledge of the sacrum:

When do we tuck?

As I mentioned earlier, tucking is inappropriate and unnecessary most of the time unless you are integrating your whole spine and posture into the tuck; aka, round position ….think rollup, rolling like a ball, etc.  Or perhaps you are mobilizing, creating length and space for your lower back with cat/cows or rolling bridges.  With more fluid mobilizing movements such as cat/cow, remember that you are not holding the tuck for very long.

How to integrate the sacrum so it stays open and spacious in the tuck?

Tucking is useful to do in an effort to stretch and open our low back.  However, with everything, it is easy to overdo the tuck and  instead of creating more width and space, its easy to clench our low back/buttocks instead.  In order to keep the sacrum spacious it is necessary to check in with your low back and notice your sensations.  Here are some tips to help you with your tuck:

1 – when you are tucking and your low back in rounding, your whole spine needs to be in the round back position!!  That means you are looking at your abdominals with your eyes and your scapula is brooding wide across your back and the back ribs are also fanning open to create space for your front spine and abdominals to deepen into.

2 – root your femur bones (thigh bones).  

If our thigh bones are stuck forward this can pull on our low back muscles making it easier to collapse and yes – tuck!  How to check if your things bones are forward – feel your groins if they are hard, usually your femurs are too far forward and you need to integrate some hip stretches that open up the back of your hip capsule so your femurs can glide back in the socket.  Other times, you just need to check in with your lower body – if your knees hyperextend when you are standing, you are most likely a tucker.  My advice for you is to soften your knees, ground and spread your feet wide in an even portion and stack your posture more appropriately.  Think – center of ankle below center of knees, below center of pelvic bowl, keeping your knees soft of course!!

3 – energize your lower body.  Remember your legs/feet are an extension of your powerhouse core, hip/pelvis/sacrum center.  So its valuable to integrate these parts with full awareness in your movements.  Careful not to let your limbs just hang and be an ornament…you want your limbs participating as much as your core.   To do this, you need to hug your midline or energetically draw your shin bones in and your thigh bones apart to energetically open up your sacrum low back.. think of a see saw, lower limbs hug in to your middle to simultaneously broaden and open your upper thighs hips/low back.

The bottom line is that it is a good idea to pay attention to your posture and how it is affecting your sacrum and vice versa.  When standing, sitting, and exercising etc, check in with yourself.  Most of the time, you will want to keep your low back long, lifted and spacious in its’ lumbar/natural lordotic curve, which is essential to balance your spine and posture.  When you need to tuck, remember that 1 – the whole body needs to be participating from your feet to your skull in your round, 2 – Energize your lower body by hugging your midline, and 3 – root your femurs bones!   When in doubt, know that you never want the low back bones to push out and back in collapse!  This happens all too easily in a tucked position. This congestion in our low back hips creates pressure and feelings of stickiness in our pelvis/hips/low back.

I hope reading this helped bring more awareness to your sacred bone, sacrum.  Its a vulnerable area in our body that is easily neglected.  Try to recognize this sacred bone, the sacrum.  Maybe, also take a moment to reflect on the people and things in your life that are sacred to you.  The things and people that usually matter most to us can also be neglected and taken forgranted.  Bringing our attention to the sacred within and around us will hopefully uplift us and help create more inner lift and peace.

I have posted some recent videos on my you tube channel that are a good complement to this idea.

I hope you check them out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClUKWMPAcZ-4jOcPYY_F8NQ  

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka