There were two key teachings in this session. First, we learned about the true neutral pelvis position. For most westerners, this position feels like you are sticking out your butt. I can't give all the details on how to assess this in a student. It has to do with the anatomy of the pelvis. Her main point was you really can't tell for certain just by looking at someone. The only way to know for sure is by putting your hands on the pelvis of the person checking for whether the left and right ASIS is in proper alignment.
There was one visual trick you can use to get an idea though. If the student is wearing loose fitting pants, you look at how the pants lay against the leg from the side of the person. When in true neutral pelvis, the pants will run in a nice straight line from the hip to the foot. If there is a curve in the pants leg, the person is most likely not standing with a neutral pelvis. This resonated for me personally with what I had learned from Thea Sawyer earlier about the work of Noelle Perez.
The second key teaching was around what she described as the lumbosacral rhythm. This is hard to describe without a visual aid. She described it this way:
- lumbar extension (backbending) = nutation
- nutation = S1 sacral vertebrae moves forward and tailbone moves backward
Basically, she was saying that these two movements are tied together. You must nutate the sacrum in order to go into a backbend in the lumbar spine. Similarly, she described lumbar flexion:
- lumbar flexion (forward bending) = counter nutation
- counter nutation = S1 sacral vertebrae moves backward and tailbone moves forward
Interestingly enough, it is a common instruction to students in many yoga classes to essentially counter nutate the sacrum to protect the lumbar spine in backbends. According to Judith, this is simply impossible. If you consciously counter nutate the sacrum first and then try to move the lumbar spine into extension, you will find it very difficult to do.
My take on this is that this instruction is intended to protect students from going into hyper-mobile movement of the sacrum in the direction of the natural nutation movement that would hurt them. It is not that you are literally tucking the tailbone. Rather, you are energetically thinking of that action and that helps you to ground the sacrum and keep the SI joint functioning in its primary capacity as a stabilizer rather than a mobilizer. Still, I would have liked to ask Judith how to rephrase that instruction more accurately while still encouraging students to stabilize (ground) the SI joint in backbends.
Judith made some general statements that I really liked too. Here are a few of my favorites from this session:
- Teach people asanas, don't teach asanas to people
- Start on time out of respect for the practice.
- End on time out of respect for the student.
Namasté
