Lesson Two: Adding “Legs” To Your Posture

Saturday, July 18, 2015

This lesson picks up from last week (Lesson One: “On Your Feet!”) as we learn to build a strong, solid, yet fluid posture. Originally, this post was going to deal with both legs and pelvis, but I’ve decided to just stick with the legs today and address the pelvis next week.

Once you have established your foot stance, bring your attention to your legs from top to bottom. Visualize them as columns that provide support but are not solid concrete – they have the ability to sway, move and sometimes unfortunately, to twist.

Imagine that you have four supporting energy lines: 1) down the front of the leg; 2) down the back of the leg; 3) along the outer leg from the top of the hip to the outer ankle of the foot and 4) from the inner thigh to the inner arch of the foot. Most of us emphasize one or two of these lines to the detriment of not using the others. These tendencies can lead to imbalances of the musculoskeletal system.

Now imagine a fifth line. This line runs inside the bones from the top of the thigh to the ankle. How would you balance your weight on your legs using this fifth line of support – if you balanced your weight through the center of the bones?  Take a look at the picture of the woman doing martial arts – can you get a sense of how balanced she is through the center of her supporting leg? She is a beautiful example of using her body in alignment with the forces of gravity to achieve a posture that is steady and strong, yet flowing and ready for action.

Once you get both legs to feel as if they’re balanced through the center of the bones, go back to your feet. Have your feet become unbalanced as a result (see lesson one for details)?

Move back and forth between balancing the weight in the feet and the weight through the center of the legs until you feel that you’re about as balanced as you can be.

Oh, and make sure you’re breathing throughout all of this so that the nervous system has an easier time learning your new patterns. It is the one thing we seem to forget to do!

Next week: Pelvis Positioning