My pelvis is now more aligned. My stretching program has taken a few years but it has been fruitful. I have lengthened my back, and hold my shoulders at their appropriate and higher level. With the weight of my upper body lifted off of my pelvis, I am noticing real relief and ease in my movement. My walking is lighter, more graceful, and my gait smoother because I’ve adjusted the position of my pelvis.
I feel much better. I use less emotions and am more practical these days. I am not trying to bring something to my life, with perhaps an unnecessary aggressive posture. Life comes to me. My body “language” is appropriate to my surrounding circumstances. I do not appear anxious nor awkward. My pelvis is not tilted forward with the crests of my iliums too far forward. Nor are the ilium crests too far to the rear. My pelvis is in a neutral position. I have lengthened my back so that my body mass above my pelvis now sits properly on top of and based within my pelvis. Appropriately, the word pelvis, from the Greek translation means “bowl or basin.” My upper body sits nicely in this basin or pelvis.
Much less physical energy is needed for me to engage with life. Things come easier and better. My hip sockets are better positioned. My leg ligaments and thigh muscles do their job easier. My pubic bone is more forward, and my iliac crests, or the top of my pelvis, are positioned more to the rear. I am walking more gracefully and with more ease. This pelvis posture tells others that I am enjoying life because I am.
My pelvis feels as though it has elongated. This actually may have happened with the upslip of my iliums relative to my sacrum corrected. My aligned sacrum is now without pain or without difficulty within my pelvis while it performs adequately as a base for my spine. The longer axis of my pelvis is certainly more perpendicular to the floor giving me the sensation that my pelvis is longer. I stretched for many years to encouraged my lumbar disks to lengthen. I feel that my sacrum is in its proper placement. This sensitive region, the small of the back, is not enduring any pinching pain from a forward tilted pelvis.
My legs, particularly my left leg, I have concentrated upon by stretching away from my pelvis. The pleasant result is that the left side of my body, my left leg hip joint, the left side of my pelvis, and my left side of my chest has protruded more forward and up. I am focusing my efforts to allow my left looking pelvis to become less receded and more active. I want my sacrum, upon which the pelvis joins and pivots with my spine, to unlock and allow the left side of my pelvis to adjust more forward while I walk and stand. A more free and balanced stride, and a neutral pelvis is now more normal for me.
My pelvis was twisted and because I’m right handed, my dominate right leg did most of the work, in walking and in my stance. It was just the way I held myself those days. Today I stand and walk smoothly as my legs evenly take on the weight of my upper body. To rectify my pelvis’ alignment I have stretched my legs while laying in bed. By doing this I use gravity to apply a perfect pressure to my neck, back, pelvis, and legs. I often place one of my arms above my head, holding my mini notebook laptop with the other while surfing the internet or reading a book. This helps when stretching the deep muscles of my pelvis.
The left side of my neck, back, and pelvis is now “popping” back into place. Yes, when you make adjustments to your body several years or decades after using it improperly, there will be some popping and cracking. Ligaments must be realigned not only in the pelvis but throughout the body. When rectifying through lengthening my spine, my left side of my neck is positioned more toward the back, better aligned with my back. It was gangly and held more forward in the previous years of my life. The right side of my neck had less of a too forward position. This had more to do with my depressed chest on my left side, and because of my guitar playing which I discuss later. Today my neck is held more aligned with my spine. Yes my spine was twisted as was my pelvis. To further rectify, I now turn my head at the C1 disk which is at the top of my spine. This is a more proper and graceful movement. This grace and poise is then transferred throughout the body to include the pelvis. Do not make a head turn using the neck at the C7 disk, located lower, at the top of the shoulders as this appears as an unsophisticated movement.
Another problem for my pelvis was that I played guitar improperly. In my youth, my back and pelvis began its left looking posture, and this was exasperated by my guitar playing. This hobby required that I look left at the guitar neck while playing being right handed. I turned my head at the C7 disk, and my left hand holding the guitar neck was pulling my left shoulder forward and down, and my right strumming hand was holding my right shoulder to the rear. This affected my pelvis. It began looking left.
Guitar playing for many is not bad for the back. I’ve noticed that people who’ve always had good posture held their guitars with no ill effect to their posture. These players would be for example, Eric Clapton or George Harrison. For me though, guitar playing came with a price to my posture. In 2009, I had to stop playing, at least for a few years to stop my left looking body and pelvis. I’ll pick the guitar up and play when my back is better aligned, when my posture is more upright, when my left side of my body is more in balance with my right side. I recommend to those of you playing guitar that you consider posture improvements to keep you on top of your musical game, and to benefit your appearance. This is true of those playing most musical instruments. Except for maybe piano or drums, just about all of them can put you in a sustained, somewhat unnatural posture, creating an unbalanced pelvis, thus requiring a daily stretching exercise to unwind.
I made a choice, as many of you will if you desire change, which included changing my appearance and the alignment of my pelvis. Do I want to find out how to enjoy life with a good posture? Do I want to be part of the human populace that is enjoyed by others simply because I have a nice appearance? Do I want to feel as though I’ve inherited a supremacy, becoming someone having more grace and poise? I want to experience what it is to use my muscles, my whole self, with ease. I want to walk with a neutral pelvis. An aligned pelvis is key to how I move. I want have a certain personal grace so that others will like and respect what they see when they watch me move, walk, sit, and engage in activities. Simply put, I want to be at the top of my physical “game.” So I had to let the guitar playing go and engage in another type of practice, stretching the muscles of my pelvis, that of moving about more erectly, with more grace and ease.
My breathing is more pure and regular now. I’ve opened up my shoulders, widened the clavicles and scapulas, so that my ribs are allowed to lift up. Now my lungs are not repressed by an ill gotten lower shoulder placement, improperly formed so that it presses down on my ribs and lungs. I have an uplifted appearance now. My entire pelvis is more forward with my stomach forward as well. My shoulders are held higher. Incorrectly there are some people that say you must relax your shoulders on your upper chest but not in my case. Some people say that holding your shoulders higher makes you look nervous and appear nervous. On the contrary. I say that people wanting to improve bad posture must raise their shoulders along with lengthening their back and whole spine. Positioning one’s pelvis more forward with a lengthened lower back helps to lengthen the whole back. Further, they must position their head, slightly higher, more toward the read, balanced above their lifted shoulders. This will permit their neck muscles to pull up their chest. This is not a simple pose to undertake after having bad posture for so many years, but day by day you become better at becoming a new and more appreciated “you.” Your pelvis more easily realign itself after the your chest and shoulders rise.
Continuing: When doing this lengthening, the pelvis is pushed away from the core of the body by the lengthened lower back, with much of an undesired spinal curve removed. Naturally there is supposed to be some curve to the spine. We are trying to remove the unwanted excessive curve of the spine. The lumbar disks pushes the sacrum, which in turn pushes the iliums downward while removing pelvic tilt. This allows the torso to lengthen and the diaphragm to position itself in a more liberal position. The organs in the region of the stomach are provided more room. This is optimum when the lungs increase in size,taking up room at the top of the stomach. And very importantly, the lungs “happily” (actually you are the one that is happy) can take up more volume in the upper part of the more opened rib cage. Breathing becomes more a natural experience. Taking full breaths is to be the basis for full enjoyment of life.
So what am I saying about my self? Where am I today with my pelvis, back, posture, self confidence? In a sentence, I’ll say I’ve gone back in time. To the time of my later teens, full of life. Without regard for the things that caused this misalignment in the first place. I am my own authoritarian now. I can listen to my own sage advice. I can read articles that directly enhance my posture. I can capture the greatness of life having dropped my baggage, and replaced it with a realignment of my pelvis, my whole body and posture. I feel as though I am young again with the rest of my life before me. I can start over again.
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