February 2008 Newsletter

Hello loyal Myoskeletal E-newsletter subscribers. Sorry I had to miss our January monthly communiqué. My wife Teri and I have been working on Costa Rica house plans and now I’m in the middle of shooting a new 3-DVD video production titled Advanced Myoskeletal Alignment for Back, Hip, Leg and Foot Pain. 

Before getting back to work on the videos, I’d like to engage you in a conceptual thread on gait, posture and pain that runs throughout my new video series. Although Serge Gracovetsky’s Spinal Engine theory has intrigued me for many years, I’ve not been able to formulate techniques to complement his counterintuitive way of observing body movement.  When Serge presented at a Rolf® Institute Annual Convention in the mid 1980’s, I found it fairly easy to “grok” his concepts on global muscle/ fascial movement patterns. However, in the absence of spinal biomechanical training, I couldn’t quite understand the facet/disc/pelvic relationship that’s so important in driving the engine. So I put it on a back burner and there it stayed until seeing him again at the Fascial Conference at Harvard last fall.

This time was definitely different.  Those years of osteopathic training with Philip Greenman during the past decade gave me a much better insight into the “Laws of Spinal Motion” and pelvic biomechanics. So, when Serge explained his slightly revised version in a one-on-one setting, the  “lights” turned on, bells rang, and theories began to surface that have led to development of techniques for correcting aberrant gait and lifting patterns. By combining Greenman’s description of pelvic/lumbar mechanics during gait with Gracovetsky’s Spinal Engine model, I’ve been able to improve function and relieve long-standing pain in many stubborn cases. 

Figure 1: Balanced walking on ischial tuberosities.

Basically, Gracovetsky believes the spine is not a rigid column during gait but a driving force able to produce locomotion through axial compression and torsion. He theorizes the legs follow pelvic motion as it counter rotates with the torso. In his model, the trunk is not a passive unit supported and moved by the legs…but vice-versa. In Figure 1, Gracovetsky boosts his argument that the legs are not responsible for gait, but merely “instruments of expression” by showing a ‘legless’ man walking on his hips.   Bottom Line: The spine is the engine that drives gait as the lumbars sidebend and rotate opposite the sacrum. Regrettably, to fully explain the mechanics of axially rotation of the pelvis and it’s myofascial components is beyond the scope of this newsletter, so I recommend you visit http://erikdalton.com/article_DontGetMarried.htm and start your rite of passage with my first in a series of articles about this fascinating way of looking at the body. You can also join in on discussions about gait and lifting by visiting my Massage Magazine blog @ http://www.massagemag.com/massage-blog/tech-talk/

I’ll try to follow up with more developments before we leave to teach in Tucson at the end of February. Don’t forget to get enrolled in my 6^th Annual Costa Rica Retreat April 26-May 3 with the great Aaron Mattes. Call Dianna @ 800-709-5054 for information on all 2008 workshops…..ERIK

 

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