Shorty Swan: The Spine

Hi there! Today I want to break down the different parts of the spine.

When speaking anatomically, the spine is seperated into a couple different regions. The vertebrae are counted from the top down. Your cervical spine (C1-C7) holds your skull at the top and continues down to become your neck. Next comes your thoracic spine (T1-12). Each thoracic vertebrae connects with a rib on either side at the transverse processes of the vertebrae (the little arms that stick out to the side). Next comes your lumbar spine (L1-L5). These vertebrae are larger and they make up your lower back. They connect to your sacrum, which is 5 fused vertebrae that lie in between your two pelvic halves and look kind of like a cupped hand or curved triangle. Your coccyx, or tailbone, is at the bottom.

Stay tuned for more info on individual vertebra and some #moveit posts to get your spine going!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_vertebral_column

levator scapulae

Oh Levator Scapulae, how I love to hate you.

The Levator(elevate) Scapulae(shoulder blade) runs from the top inner corner of the shoulder blade up to your first four vertebrae in your cervical spine (neck). The levator scap is underneath both the Trapezius and SCM. (click here or here if you don't know what those are)

This image is from Wikipedia 

The Levator does a couple of actions. It works to elevate the inner corner of the scapulae, which in turn downwardly rates the scapulae (does that make your brain hurt?). Basically, it pulls that inner corner up towards the neck and makes your shoulder socket spin down towards the floor. If the shoulder blade is fixed, the Levators can work to either bend the spine to one side or another, compress the spine on one side or the other, OR compress both sides which could contribute to forward head (and lots of neck aches).

Lucky for you, we will be posting a #moveit post next week to teach you some ways to help release your Levator Scapulae. Stay tuned!

Sternocleidomastoid - Say what?

Let's break that down! 

Sterno = Sternum- aka chest plate

Cleido = Clavicle or clavicular- aka collar bones

Mastoid = having to do with the Mastoid process- aka the landmark on your temporal bone, behind your ear 

SCM for short! The sternocliedomastoid is a neck muscle that is easily visible when you turn your head to look over one shoulder. You have two, one on each side of the front of your neck. 

What does it do? Primarily the SCM acts in moving the head and cervical spine. The SCM moves the head during specific angles of side bending and rotation, and when both SCMs contract together they create extension of the head (turning your face to the ceiling) and accentuate the curvature in the vertebrae of your neck (cervical vertebrae). However, when the head is fixed or held still the SCM elevates the sternum and clavicle assisting in respiration. You might make your neck look like a lizard sometimes on purpose- this is flaring your SCMs with a fixed skull. 

Image:Gray385.png modified by Uwe Gille - Image:Gray385.png

Let's look at where it attaches to better understand how it affects our #necksupport. Your SCMs have two heads that originate on each side of the top of the sternum and along the edge of your clavicles close to the sternum. From their origins they sweep on a diagonal line across your neck, without attaching to any vertebrae to insert behind your ear. So these puppies connect your shoulder girdle and rib cage to your head. 

Forward head posture is a common problem in our desk-driven and text-fueled society. In forward head posture, the SCMs can't perform their movement responsibilities because our alignment is so out of whack. In this poor alignment the side bending and rotating, that the SCMs usually take care of, gets outsourced to other groups like our traps! Yikes! All of this reorganizing and compensating leads to compromised positions, stress and imbalance on the structures of our neck, spine and ribs that can lead to long term issues. Are you reading this on a screen? Where's your head? :)  Just looking out for you! Stay tuned for more on neck anatomy and posture as well as information to understand your spine! 

See you in the studio! -Shorty

Scalenes

Hello! Shorty here to give you some #necksupport. Today's topic is a group of muscles called the scalenes. There are three--anterior, medium and posterior OR front, middle and back. They attach to the transverse processes of your vertebrae (the little arms that stick out to the sides) and run down along your neck, connecting to your first and second ribs.

This is looking straight on like you were looking in the mirror.  The bright red muscles are the scalenes. Image from Wikipedia 

Why are these things important? Well, because they attach to both your neck and your ribcage. If they get tight they can cause compression in your neck and do nasty things like shift, tilt or rotate your head. They can also inhibit breathing in the upper part of your chest if they are very tight and always engaged (they should slightly assist your upper ribs moving up and down with your breathing).  

There are little places in each vertebral (spinal) segment where nerves emerge and continue into part of your body. Some of the nerves that feed into your shoulders, arms and hands move through and intertwine with the scalenes. If they are tight, they can inhibit or irritate these nerves from moving smoothly. Nobody wants a cramped nerve, know what I mean?

This image is looking at someone's right shoulder. Look closely at the text. The yellow part is the brachial plexus, a bundle of nerves. It is sandwiched between the anterior and medial scalene muscles and continues underneath the collar bone. Image from Gray's Anatomy.

Stay tuned this month for some ways to get in touch with, stretch, and breath ease into these muscles.

The Year in Review -- Shorty Swan Explains our Series!

There is a never ending supply of things to talk about when it comes to our bodies and how to use and take care of them. In our efforts to share our knowledge and passion of the magically complicated thing that is the human body, and to help shape these discussions on the blog, we have begun to create a series of series, if you will! Focusing on specific areas of the body, fundamental concepts of Pilates, bones, muscles, and anything else we can think of, these series are created to give you a chance to expand your knowledge, one topic at a time! Our series include at home exercise tips and anatomy lessons from yours truly. We also love to shed light on the beauty of the body, with quotes and images inspired by our topics.

Although new series are introduced generally every month, there are always new things to explore within the topics. We will continue to add to our current series even as we create new ones! Take a look at past topics you might have missed and let us know what you are interested in learning about next!!

#yearinreview in which we introduce or re-introduce all of the wonderful content we have been adding to the blog this year. With so much to look through, and a better organization system forthcoming but not here yet, we hope this series sheds some light on everything the blog has to offer!

#breath in which we talk about the ever important and constant function of breathing. It is a  universal and anchoring act that is so important to develop in your practice. This series focuses on the physical act of breathing, how to notice your breath and its affect on the body and the mind, body, spirit connection of this life giving force!

#expand in which we focus on your "wings", how to open up your chest and strengthen the upper back. Understand the difference between flexion and extension and begin the process of learning about the gazillion interconnected parts of the shoulder girdle and upper back!

#corevalues in which we focus on that oh so important power house known as the core. With information on the core functions, all those ab muscles, the pelvis and more, this series covers a lot of ground and includes an amazing video to utilize in your at-home practice!

#monthofthefoot in which we talk about where it all begins. Stability, alignment and support all start here. This series focuses on the bones of the foot and ways to strengthen and articulate these constantly used and oft neglected body parts. It even includes information on the best shoes to wear for your foot needs!   

Keep your eyes peeled for more great info in 2015!!

Two Lungs, Five Lobes

Shorty Swan with some organ insights! I don't have lungs but I do build the house for them. Fundamentally we should all at least understand their shape. Building a good image of your lungs in your mind's eye is useful for watching your breath or executing different breathing techniques. 

Everyone knows that we have two lungs. We often think of them as symmetrical organs that mirror each other on the right and left half of our thoracic cavity. Not so! Our lungs are good neighbors to all the other organs housed in our torso and are shaped in a way that makes room for all our essential viscera. 

Each of your lungs is divided into lobes by fissures. Your right lung is slightly bigger than your left one. Your right lung has three lobes (superior, middle and inferior) and your left lung has only two (upper and lower). Your heart is snuggled just slightly left of center and having only two lobes in the left lung makes room for the heart in the thoracic cavity. This space created for your heart by your lung lobes is called the cardiac notch. Your right lung is a bit shorter than your left to make room for your liver which lives underneath your right lung below the diaphragm. 

The division of lungs into lobes allows for increased surface area for respiration. Additionally, if something damages one of your lungs there is a greater chance that the other lobes can continue to function. "A normal pair of lungs can hold about two pints of air, while the average person breathes in about one or less per breath" (Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life). 

Image from wikipedia.

The more you know the more you grow. Learn more about the the functionality and importance of breath here!

The Other Traps

We all know about our upper traps, those muscles at the top of the neck that get really tight from holding tension, a heavy grocery bag or a purse. The Trapezius muscle is so much more than this headache monster. It is shaped like a trapezoid (which is cool) and attaches to the back of your head, your shoulder blades, the outsides of your shoulders, your collar bones and down all of the spinous processes of your neck and thoracic spine! The upper fibers have the ability to give us a neck ache, but middle and lower fibers work to help healthy shoulder function (phew, at least it does something right).

The middle fibers of the trap draw the scapula in towards the spine. The lower fibers of the trap draw your shoulder blades down the back and also (with the help of our friend serratus anterior) assist upward rotation of the shoulder blades (this happens when you lift your arms up above shoulder level). They do this by pulling the inner corners of your shoulder blades down, which causes the bottom corners to open out to the side. It's like pulling a triangle by one of its points -- the pull makes the triangle spin! 

The mid and lower traps should engage well when you are performing upper back extension exercises. They help bring the shoulder blades onto the back of your ribcage and open the front of your chest. Having balance in your trapezius recruitment helps reduce the possibility of over recruiting your latissimus dorsi, thus unlocking potential for more fluid length and connection in your torso and lovely shoulder mechanics.

Use this knowledge to utilize those mid and lower traps when doing our at home Extension Series Exercises!

Shorty Swan just loves to teach people about the bones and muscles of the body. Check out all of his lessons!

Rotator Cuff Breakdown

We use our rotator cuffs all the time in Pilates, in each movement of our arm. Let's learn about the muscles that make it up and their function! Our rotator cuff is often spoken about as a singular piece, as in "a rotator cuff tear". Actually, the rotator cuff is made of four muscles and their tendons. Together they stabilize our glenohumeral joint, articulate the humerus and play a role in scapular movement. Individually they are called subscapularis, supraspinatis, infraspinatis and teres minor. 

Let's start deep with the subscapularis. The subscapularis runs along the anterior border of the scapula (meaning the side of your scapula that sits on your rib cage) and attaches to the lesser tubercle of the humerus. The subscap medially rotates the upper arm. You might think of this as internal rotation of your upper arm, when your elbow fold looks in towards your center line. 

Supraspinatus starts at the supraspinous fossa of the scapula and slides under the acromioclavicular joint, inserting on the highest part of the greater tubercle of the humerus. The supraspinatus has two main functions, to help hold and stabliize the humeral head in the socket or glenoid fossa and abduction of the humerus for the first 30 degrees. Above 30 degrees of abduction your deltoid takes over. Abduction in the joint occurs when you move your arm out to the side away from your body. 

Infraspinatus originates from the infraspinous fossa on the scapula and inserts on the greater tubercle of the humerus. The insertion for the infraspinatus on the humerus is behind and below the supraspinatus. The infraspinatus laterally rotates your humerus and assists in abduction (described above). You might think of lateral rotation as external rotation or when you turn the fold of your elbow away, looking out from your center line. 

The teres minor originates from the lateral border of the scapula and inserts on the head of the humerus just below the infraspinatus.  Teres minor also laterally rotates your humerus. 

Learn more from the anatomy expert, Shorty Swan!

When you take a moment to consider the direction and attachments of these four muscles you can easily understand their role in holding your humerus steady during many movements. 

A is for Abdominal

Shorty Swan here to introduce all your abdominal muscles! 

Let's work from the outside in or the most superficial muscles to the deepest. 

Rectus Abdominus- Your 6 pack. 

"Rectus abdominis". Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rectus_abdomin is.png#mediaviewer/File:Rectus_abdominis.png

The Rectus Abdominis start at your pubic symphysis and pubic crest, attaches to the cartilage of the 5th, 6th and 7th ribs and xiphoid process. It's two halves are connected by a band of thick connective tissue called the linea alba. More tendinous intersections transverse across each strip of vertically running muscle fibers, creating the segments of the sought-after six pack. It is your most superficial abdominal muscle. 

What does it do?

The rectus causes flexion of the trunk by pulling your sternum and your pubic bone forward toward one another. It also aids in forceful respiration. In the studio you use it for your C curve, chest curl and pelvic tuck -- just to name a few!

External Obliques and Internal Obliques

The External Obliques are the next layer below the rectus, while still being the most superficial muscle of the side body. The external obliques start along the outer surfaces of the lower 8 ribs where they interlace with the serratus anterior. They run on a diagonal, forward and in, towards the midline of your body, where they insert at the pubis, anterior (front) iliac crest, ilioinguinal ligament and linea alba. The fibers of external obliques run in the same diagonal direction. The muscle fibers run in the direction your fingers point when you place your hands like you were preparing to reach into your pants pockets. 

What do they do?

When both the right and left external oblique flex at the same time or bilaterally they flex the trunk, bringing your rib cage towards your pelvis when you hold your pelvis still or vice versus. When one side is working on its own, it cause either side bending or rotation of the trunk towards the opposite side. For example, your right external oblique side bends you to the right and turns you to the left. If you visualize the direction of the muscle fibers, this makes perfect sense. In the studio you use these in criss cross, mermaid, saw, snake and twist and global stabilization of the spine. 

The internal obliques are underneath or deep to the external obliques and they run in the opposite diagonal. These deep abdominals originate at the inguinal ligament, anterior iliac crest and deep layer of fascia in the low back called the lumbodorsal fascia. (Think lumbo like lumbar spine and dorsal means backside). From there they run up and in to insert at low ribs 9 through 12. The internal oblique fibers directionally make an X with the external oblique fibers. If you cross your arms over your torso and let your fingers land at the top of your iliac crests, the internal oblique fibers run in the same direction as your fingers. 

What do they do? 

When flexed bilaterally the internal obliques compress your abdominal contents and help flex your torso forward. When flexed unilaterally, they facilitate side bending and rotation to the same side of the trunk. For example if you side bend to the left you are using both your internal and external obliques on the left side. If you rotate your rib cage to the left (but leave your pelvis facing forward) you engage your internal obliques on the left and your external obliques on the right. 

Transverse Abdominus - Your functional corset.

This is the deepest layer of your abdominals, closest to your organs and your center line. The fibers of the transverse abdominis run crosswise like a belt around your torso. Understanding the direction of the fibers helps us visual where it attaches, all around the bones of our center not just in the front. The transverse originates from the inguinal ligament, along the iliac crests in the front body and wraps around, anchoring in the back to the same lumbodorsal fascia as the internal oblique, the lumbar vertebrae and the inside surface of the bottom seven ribs!! In these back attachments it interlaces with the diaphragm. So the origins are really covering a lot of surface from top to bottom in your torso! All these fibers belt around to attach into the linea alba, the same midline marker that splits your six pack!

What does it do?

When the transverse fires it tightens like a corset decreasing the circumference of the torso. This contraction causes compression of the contents of our abdominal cavity. In short, it pulls the belly in 360 degrees towards center. It also fires when you cough or laugh. The transverse, like all the abdominal muscles, helps to stabilize the spine 

Here is a great image that allows you to see each layer, but all the layers in relation to each other. 

These abdominal muscles partner with the musculature of your back, pelvis, your pelvic floor and your diaphragm to encapsulate your organs. All together they are your core, your powerhouse, your center! We identify them separately, like identifying the members of a band, but they work in concert with each other. They are a functional family of support and strength for your body. 

Check out Explore Your Core for movements to activate all of these muscles. Or get outside and MOVE!

Those Boney Pelvic Landmarks!

Shorty Swan is excited to share the boney landmarks of your pelvis with you! Often you are called on to organize these landmarks in a Pilates class. Understanding what they are and where they are in a spatial relationship to one another will help you develop stellar form and proprioception, not only in Pilates but in all movements.

Your pelvis is the basin for your organs comprised of four larger bones- your sacrum, coccyx and two hip bones. The pelvis acts as the bridge between the upper body and the lower body. The weight of the upper body is transferred through our pelvis to our legs for motion and all motion in the lower body reverberates up through the pelvis to your spine. How we organize our pelvis greatly affects full body movements. 

Hip points/ ASIS

Your hip points are often cued for lining up your pelvis. These boney landmarks are the anterior superior iliac spine or ASIS for short. They are an easily locatable surface on the Iliac crests of your or ridge of your ilia. Looking at the picture below of the front of the pelvis, the wing like bones (labeled 2) are your ilia (plural for ilium), the top edge of each ilium are your iliac crests and the most forward and widest point along the iliac crest is your ASIS. 

Your ASIS are cued in Pilates because they are easily felt on the front surface of the body or against the mat. If you place your hands on your natural waist, squeeze in a little bit and run them down your torso you will find your iliac crests. Then use your finger tips to trace the crests around and down towards the front of your body to find your hip points or ASIS. Your ASIS might be where your pants tend to sit and your iliac crest could be what you think of as your hips when actually we can see they are more complicated than that!

"Skeletpelvis-pubis" by Wiechers at Dutch Wikipedia 

Sitz Bones / Ischial Tuberosities

In Pilates we like to know where our sitz bones are all the time. Are they long, tipped up, wide, reaching under? If you sit on a hard surface like a wooden chair or the floor and gently rock from right to left you will feel your sitz bones. It might be helpful to move your glute flesh out of the way a little bit. What we know in the studio as sitz bones are ishchial tuberosities. Tuberosity means a large prominence on a bone which usually serves as a site for muscular attachment. So your sitz bones are tuberosities on the ischium which is the bottom bone of the pelvic bowl (labeled 3). Your ischial tuberosities take the weight of the body when we sit. 

Pubic Bone/ Pubis

Your pubic bone is actually two bones called your pubic crests (Labeled 4) that are joined together with a fibrocartilage disc known as the pubic symphysis (labeled 5). While we tend to think of it as one, hard bone It can be helpful to visualize lining up both sides or halves of your pubic "bone" when squaring off your pelvis. The pubic bones are cued so often because, like the ASIS, it is easily locatable on the front surface of the body or against the mat. These surface land marks allow for easier proprioception while you practice as reference points for your boney alignment.

Sacrum

The sacrum (1) contains five fused vertebrae and sits between the two ilia creating the posterior ring of the pelvic girdle. The sacrum is the keystone bridging the vertebral column to pelvic girdle transferring the body weight to the legs. The sacrum and the lumbar spine meet at the junction of L5 and S1.  The sacrum meets the top of each ilia at the sacroiliac joints. The sacroiliac joints are broad, flat, synovial joints that were once believe to not move. While SI joints can lose mobility as we age, they remain mobile when healthy. As in any joint, hyper mobility is often problematic. A network of sensory and movement nerves for the lower body run through the sacral plexus, running through the holes in the bone. 

Image from Greys

Tail Bone / Coccyx

Your tail bone or coccyx is attached at the end of your sacrum at S5 and contains three to five fixed vertebrae. The coccyx serves for muscular attachments, is truly the tail end of your spine and is slightly above and behind your sitz bones. 

Related boney landmarks in your femurs (aka thigh bones) are the lesser trochanter and the greater trochanter. More on those when we talk about the hip joint but here is an image for you to run with until then!

my-my-my metatarsal

Image from Wikipedia

Meet your metatarsal bones! These long bones create length and width in your feet, continuing forward to become your toes. Your metatarsal bones are numbered 1-5 starting with the big toes, working out to your pinky toes. Sometimes these bones are referred to as the "rays" of your feet. You can think of them like rays of light shining forward from your ankle. 

Image from Wikipedia

The heads of your metatarsals are the parts that touch the floor and form joints with your toe bones. In every day speak, this is called the "ball of your foot". When balancing your weight in standing, or doing an exercise such as bridging that necessitates balance through the foot, it is important to distribute your weight across the heads of all of your metatarsals. 

Image from Wikipedia

In walking, your foot does a slight roll from outside to inside (see pronation/supination from the calcaneus post). While the calcaneus does a slight outside/inside rock, your weight waves through the metatarsals from 5 to 1 as you move from heel strike to push off. I like to think of my metatarsals being as articulate as a fan or a wave. They not only stabilize and disperse your weight into the ground, but also help your feet to be flexible, pliant, and articulate.  

Did you enjoy this post? See more from our Month of the Foot series here!

See what else Shorty Swan has to say!