Understand The Body Pattern and Its Impact on Health?
- Laura Edgell
- May 31
- 4 min read
I thought I would write about the body pattern.
The body pattern is your design, and what ever life choices you are making regarding day to day activity will reflect this. We are like plasticine, we are easy to mould, and there for this mould that you have created sticks unless you reset.
These are a few stories I here.
"I must of slept funny, my neck hurts".
"I am doing the exercises that the physio has prescribed but it doesn't seem to be working".
"I have done nothing different, but my hip has started to hurt".
All of this is not funny or strange, it is simply because we haven't corrected the body pattern after activity that has moulded the anatomy into a certain position. There for it's your muscles that have finally said, "enough is enough".
And even when you have the pain in a particular area, that painful area is not where we need to work, it is usually somewhere else in the body that needs to be assessed.
I decided to write this today as I am getting tired of people telling me about their experience of going to physiotherapy and left feeling like just a number. That the person they have been referred to is not caring or concerned and they are given a piece of paper and exercises on that paper have to be followed. I have also been told that they specialist doesn't even look at them, analyse or test or check if they have referred pain. I want to clarify that there are many great physiotherapist and I have met some, but I am just telling you about the many cases I here.
Lets start off looking at body patterns.
Lets study the below before and after, what are the issues here? where is the pain? and where would you concentrate instead? And what day to day activity would have created the complaint.
Starting off with where the pain was, the pain that she complained about was in her neck, shoulders and knees.
What do you think caused these issues? This lady enjoyed her weekly golf and also that really lovely curled up position that we adopt when relaxing on the sofa in front of the TV, with our legs curled up and leaning to one side.
The before picture reflects her body pattern, the activity she chose and seemed to have stayed in for a very long time, without resetting after her chosen sport.
The after picture was taken six week later, and as you can see she has had a significant amount of change, that is life changing. How did we create this without getting on a mat and doing the prescribed exercises from the physio? Also I must point out that she never stopped playing the sport she loved in this time either.
In the above image is the same photo but with the centre of mass, and the body broken up into nine segments. This gives us more of an understanding about what is needed to be done in order to improve the quality of life.
Instead of focusing on where her pain was, we noticed that her body was twisted between the shoulders and hips, and also she had what was called a translation, which is a when half of the body is over to one side and the other other is over to the other. This is going to cause those muscle fibres to pull and there for pain is created.
What we focused on first was the stance, we shifted the weight bearing from the heal of foot to front to middle, this was so that she lengthened through her back and not compress the vertebrae. The next thing we focused on was created length through the ribs, with a simple movement, that I will explain later. By focusing on the length of the ribs, we were able to reduce the rotation.
Then finally another movement we focused on was arcing, which I do in the main warm up phase off of my Pilate classes and also after the class, performing this movement either in a seated version or standing version regularly, is the reset that is needed to help balance the body.
The link below is a video that describes and demonstrates what arcing does. Please view to get a bit more understanding and also if you like subscribe to my channel, which I add to regularly.
Also I have shared a link with you that comes from Aston Kinetics to help you understand the arcing practice. When you click on the link, you don't need to use polls but you can use a chair, table or kitchen worktop perhaps instead.
Practicing this movement on a daily basis, can take less than a minute out of your day, for example, driving long distances, practicing your chosen sport, or working for hours at your desk can be the answer. If we reset the negative impact these day to day choices have on our anatomy, you will gain more optimal range of movement feel more balanced through your centre of mass.
Next time you say to yourself, "I have a pain, that is weird". Take a look in the mirror or take a photo, and analysis your body pattern, take not on what you notice. First asking your self a few simple questions.
Where is the majority of my weight placed on my feet.
Am I pushing away the floor, with my feet, rather than collapsing.
What can I see, is one arm longer than the other, are my knees rolling in, am I twisted.
We need to be present and observe our body, and understand why we have these complaints in the first place. If we are going to be able to see, feel and heal ourselves. No one else can do it for us, we have to take responsibility to make things improve the quality of life.
Starting arcing today, to change your body pattern and create a positive one. Treating the cause is key to healing and not just treating the symptom, which will end up coming back again and again.
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