The physical body is a network. Mechanically, it functions as a closed system. Events at one location are felt effectively throughout the entire system. Nothing happens in isolation. 

 

Mechanically, the physical body hinges on the pelvis. The balance of the pelvis and the freedom of the pelvic joints; the SI joints. These joints are meant to move as we move. Not enough so we would notice it, but enough to notice when they don’t! Too often, one or both get stuck. When something gets stuck, the body, obeying the demand to move, has to strategize around the part that doesn’t move. Translating compensations up and down the chain, from the top of the head to the soles of the feet.

 

A few things are hard wired into the human experience. A hierarchy of priorities. First priority is Air. We have to breathe. The body will take any contortion in order to get air. As humans, we must remain vertical, with our feet on the floor. As predators, our eyes must remain on the horizon. Finally, we must be able to travel in a forward direction. Everything else in between are variables. 

 

Muscle balance, joint alignment, movement strategies, these Variables can be manipulated and altered, sacrificed, to accommodate the primary tasks.  As time goes on, layers of compensation accumulate. Individual patterns appear, personal to load and demand: desk siting, running, Golf, etc. 

 

Eventually, as we put the body through daily wear and tear, small injuries arise and accumulate. Abilities fall away. Your back starts to hurt more often, hips get tight, hamstring pulls, shoulders and neck tighten and strain…these may seem like separate events, but they are not. They are links on an identifiable chain that can be traced back to a source. 

 

At AIH, we go directly to the source. The hinge. The balance and functionality of the pelvic joints and the radiating issues that accumulate along the way. We start work with the pivot point between the mind and body, the breath and the nervous system, the ribcage and the pelvis. To pick apart the current pattern and draw the body back to balance we leverage the same forces that gave us the current adaptation: the management of force, load, and gravity; the instinctive need to breathe, to move. 

 

The human body is a mastery. We developed to generate and manage energy; force and power. We evolved to move within the pull of gravity. Whether we are standing, walking, running or dancing; moving stones, or game, or just moving ourselves, our bodies generate, manipulate and leverage power. 

 

Think of the body like a garden hose. If the hose is free of kinks and holes, the water, the force, runs strong and true from one end to the other, losing nothing. If there are kinks and holes, the force is lost. Energy is blocked or leaks out along the way. 

 

Pelvic tilt, joint misalignment, and muscle tension or weakness are the kinks and holes along our garden hose. We lose our power and our ability to channel power. The work we do seeks to resolve these kinks and holes in our system. 

 

Once we resolve the kinks and holes in the system the work is not finished. We have established a straight channel, but healthy human movement involves more that that. 

 

Think now of ourselves as a flute. Our joints are the note-holes on the flute. If we blow through a flute with all the holes open, we get a muddy, weak sound. If we blow with all the holes closed, we get a strong single note. But if we begin to choose which holes we close, and which we allow to open, now we are playing music. Now we are dancing. 

 

That is the approach to human movement we apply. Restoration of access to a clean, efficient generation and transfer of force. A body free of kinks or holes. Followed by the restoration of the ability to choose how, where and to what degree we manage and direct that force. How and to what degree we move. To whatever end we desire; to truly live within and enjoy the body we have.