Non Compensatory Movement
Just six years ago, this position was inconceivable. My body was so locked up, so tight, so sympathetically driven by a discordant sensory system, that I doubt I could have even stood on my left leg without falling over.
What is so important about this position?
There is no compensation going on.
From the ground up:
– My left foot is pronated.
– My left knee is bent.
– My pelvis is in left AF/IR.
– My thoracic spine is flexed
– My left posterior mediastinum is expanded.
– My trunk is rotating to the right.
– My neck is rotated left and side-bending right.
– My left atlas is moving up on my occiput.
– I have left peripheral vision awareness
– I’m experiencing no cramping.
– I’m breathing, rather than holding my breath.
– No lower back tension.
Alternation without Compensation
The question is, can you do this?
Can you do it comfortably while breathing normally?
If you can do this on both legs, chances are you are in pretty good shape from a movement perspective and you’ll have the ability to move from side-to-side without compensation. PRI calls this “alternation”.
It means you can move smoothly and without restriction.
Plenty of people with exquisite-looking bodies will fail this test miserably. They won’t fail because they are weak. They will fail because they are too strong. They are so locked up, tight, and restricted that they can’t turn “off” enough to get into a state of flexion and internal rotation. They can’t rest. Their body won’t allow it. They are stuck in a pattern that they don’t know they are in.
Left AIC, right BC, right TMCC or maybe a bilateral pattern. Regardless of what you label these patterns, this is what matters:
They (and possibly you) are extended on one or both sides of the body. This “posture” prevents you from alternating without some fair amount of compensatory activity.
You can’t move in and out of normal ranges of motion. You breathe with your neck and lower back. You’ll overuse certain areas of your body.
Your may experience chronic pain; plantar fasciitis, shin splints, low back pain, hip impingements, shoulder impingements and tendonitis, tennis elbow, knee pain, upper back and neck spasms, neck tension, TMJ, headaches, tinnitus.
note: I’ve experienced all of these except the headaches and TMJ.
If you can’t alternate, your energy isn’t flowing. Your neck is stuck. Your spine is stuck. Your legs can’t rotate, arms don’t swing. Your brain is lost. You’re ungrounded.
You have to get your left side back in the game in a non-compensatory state, and then you have to alternate.
That’s the game we are playing. And for so many people, including me, it’s deadly serious.
Can you do what I’m doing in the picture above?
I hope so.
