Freeing the thumb

The first joint of the thumb is at the wrist rather than at the end of a metacarpal like the fingers are. This means chronic tightening of the wrist will cause the thumb to lose mobility in relation to the other fingers and the thumb will not lie easily in the palm as it could. Freeing your wrist will free your thumb.

Fold your hand in half touching your thumb to the little finger. Look at the crease is makes and how it runs right up the middle of your palm. The main thumb joint splits the hand in half. Often people have their thumb mapped as though it is on the side of the hand, which the bulk of it is, visually. Open and close the thumb, feeling the main joint located near the center of the hand.

As you refine your thumb map, does it feel longer? Can you sense more of it? Next we’ll coax more mobility out of the fingers and the rest of the hand through mapping.

A wristed development

A number of people with serious use-induced problems in their wrists or hands don’t have their wrists mapped correctly, if at all. Find the wrist in the image below. We want no pressure on our wrists, no chronic pressure that is. We want a long easy sweep of skin and muscle and tendon across the joint, and we want full mobility with no retracting across the joint in movement. We want the fingers to move without the wrist stiffening, even when we grip or strike something. In order to achieve the freeing of the wrist it needs to be accurately mapped.

Can you find the end of your forearm? How about your wrist? Using your fingers, trace down your forearm, noticing where the radius and ulna bones end and the wrist begins. Keep going and find where the wrist ends and the hand and fingers begin. In many of us, the wrist is about two fingers wide. Try placing your index and middle fingers just below your forearm bones. Your wrist is right around there somewhere. Look for the movement between the wrist and arm, movement among the wrist bones and movement between the hand bones and the wrist.

The image above shows how the radius connects with the wrist bones and how the wrist bones connect with the metacarpal bones all the way down to the tip of the fingers. The wrist, hand and forearm are often capable of more movement than we allow them to have. An accurate map allows increased differentiation of all these tissues, resulting in refined feeling and expression as well as strength and mobility.

Next we’ll map our thumbs!

Our hands, the world, us and no man's land

Our hands connect us to the world. It’s how we experience the world, feel people and manipulate things. The radius is connected to the hand, so it’s connected to the world too. The ulna is connected to us. The interface between the radius and the ulna is called the forearms. They are like no man’s land. It’s a zone that’s neither us nor them and we are feeling across it constantly - I heard Til Luchau say this in an advanced myofascial course. He heard it from a Rolfer named Hubert Godard.

Look at how the radius bone connects to the wrist and hand. See how thick it is? Like I mentioned in the pelvis post on February 4th, thick bones bear weight. When you put weight on your hands, the radius takes it on first. Follow the radius up to the elbow and you’ll see the ulna is now the thicker bone. The tissue that connects these two bones is called the interosseous membrane. It transfers weight across the radius to the ulna into the stable part of the elbow.

The interosseous membrane isn’t shown here, but you can imagine.

This transfer of weight between the two bones allows the forearm to rotate and maintain its adaptability during weight bearing activities. Can you imagine how different we would move if it were any other way? Tensegrity at its finest folks!

Now that we have a decent understanding of the forearm, let’s look at how it connects to the wrist.

Forearm, wrist and hand relationship

The image below shows an aligned, balanced relationship between the elbow, wrist and hand. Follow the line from the little finger along the ulna bone up to the middle of the main elbow joint. As we discussed in the last post, the radius bone allows the forearm to rotate very easily around this line. Here, the tendons that connect the forearm muscles to the hand cross the wrist without any twists and turns. Working, moving and performing from this position keeps them more in line.

The next image shows the wrist and hand deviated. This orientation allows us to lead with the thumb side of the hand. The tendons that cross the wrist joint in this orientation have to turn a corner and are more prone to friction and injury over time.

Explore how it feels to move your fingers from both of these orientations. Does one feel easier than the other? Which position do you employ when working on your computer? Do you tend to lead with your thumb or more from the pinky side of your hand? As you know by now, different activities call for different movement options. Lucky for us, our bodies are capable of moving in many different ways. Take some time to observe how you commonly use your forearm, wrist and hands throughout the day. Is there a more efficient way?

Next we’ll look at how the hand, wrist and forearm are designed to bear weight.

Forearm rotation

Turn your palm toward your face, turn your palm away. When the palm is facing you, the forearm bones are parallel to each other. When the palm is facing away, the forearm bones are crossed.

Place your hand and forearm on a flat surface like a desk or countertop and turn your palm up and down. Notice how the thumb side of the hand rotates easily around the pinky side of the hand. The pinky side stays in contact with the surface. Try keeping the thumb on the surface and rotate the hand from the pinky side. Notice how the elbow wants to rise, involving the shoulder.

The forearm rotates at the elbow with ease when the pinky (ulnar) side of the forearm is at the center of rotation. The shoulder is involved more when the thumb is at the center of rotation.

Explore these two different orientations throughout your day. Which one is optimal for turning your steering wheel? Which one is good when working at your desk, chopping vegetables, or picking up an object up off the floor? Applying different orientations for different tasks can make a huge difference in the ease or effort your feel in your arms during the day.

Next we will look at some relationships between the forearm, wrist and hand.

Bending the elbow

The elbow is a basic hinge joint. It flexes and extends the two forearm bones. Let's look closer at the radial side of the elbow. In the image below, look at how the radius connects to the humerus. When the elbow bends or straightens, the radius articulates with the humerus in a way that allows it to rotate at the same time. This simple design allows us to use our hands any way we want to. For example, you can pick up an apple with your palm down, elbow extended and turn your palm up while bending the elbow as you bring the apple to your mouth. It’s a simple, everyday movement we don’t think about until we have pain or limitation.

The structures involved in bending the elbow and rotating the forearm allow us to perform a multitude of tasks. Take a moment to appreciate this functional design.

Next we’ll take a closer look at how the radius and ulna bones interact when we rotate our forearm.

Arm joint #3

I think most people have the location of their elbows mapped accurately, so I wanted to take a look at the shapes involved in this everyday mover. The image below is of the inside of a right elbow joint in anatomical position. It’s how it looks when you let your arm hang down at your side with your palm facing forward. The top bone is the humerus (upper arm bone), the bone on the left is the radius and the bone on the right is the ulna.

Look at how the radius joins the humerus. It articulates with the ball bearing looking part of the bone (capitulum) to bend and the radial notch of the ulna to rotate. It’s an absolutely genius design. This allows us to seamlessly rotate our forearms and put our hands in all kinds of positions while the sturdy and reliable olecranon process of the ulna articulates with the humerus at the olecranon fossa.

The radius bone is named primarily after its function. Radius, radial, rotate. Get it? See it?

See how the peak of the coronoid process of the ulna fits nicely into the trochlea of the humerus? It helps keep the elbow stable and in line when we bend it.

Take a few moments to let this image sink in. It is a truly remarkable design and single handedly separates us biomechanically from all other species. Next we are going map and refine this joints function in order to keep our elbows bending and forearms rotating smoothly.

The second joint of the arm

Let’s take a closer look at the second joint of the arm, the glenohumeral joint. The main thing I want to point out is the size of the glenoid fossa’s articulating surface. It’s where the upper arm bone (humerus) connects to the shoulder blade, hence the name glenohumeral joint. Some people have this joint mapped incorrectly in their brain. They think the fossa wraps around the humerus more than it does. This can limit how much movement is available, forcing us to find it somewhere else.

Make a fist with one hand and wrap your other hand around it, then try to move your fist around inside the surrounding hand. Can you see how limiting it is? Now look at the images below. See how shallow the glenoid fossa is? It’s about the size of the pad on your thumb. This small articulating surface is why the shoulder has such a large range of motion.

While we’re at it, let’s look at the image on the right. You can see how much space the acromion and coracoid processes give the joint complex to move? This organization also allows the joint to have the range of motion it does and of course the collarbone supports it all.

The shoulder blade is a gorgeous bone with amazing architecture. Classified as a flat bone, its shape allows it to move smoothly over the ribs. It’s covered in muscles and connective tissues that allow us to push, pull, hang, reach, grasp, rotate and support us in an infinite number of ways.

I hope you will never think about your shoulder region the same ever again. It’s designed to move freely and comfortably when we let it. Next we will move down to the third joint of the arm, the elbow.

The brachial plexus in space

Arms are designed to be suspended over the torso and supported by the axial skeleton and surrounding tissues. They don’t need to weigh us down, pull us back, push us forward or hold us up, though they often do.

Can you balance your collarbones so they are not too high, not too low, not too far back and not too far forward? The image below shows some of the nerves of the brachial plexus. They travel out of the neck and down the arm. When the arms aren’t balanced over our body, too often they put pressure on these nerves. This can cause all kinds of radiating pain and muscle weaknesses down the arm to the hand.

Reflecting back to yesterday’s image, sense how optimizing the space between the ribs, collarbone and upper arm bone can give these nerves room to glide and breathe.

Breath in fully. Sense the space between the ribs, shoulder blade, collarbone and upper arm bone. There’s plenty of room for the nerves traveling through this space to accommodate movement and feed the muscles they innervate. Exhale fully and notice this space remains.

There are so many ways to look at the arms, I have a hard time choosing where to go next. Tomorrow we’ll look at how the shoulder blades move around freely on our back.

Lift off

The space between the ribs and the shoulder blades fascinate me. I’m never quite sure if people are able to translate my attempts into motion, but I’ll keep at it. The image below, when compared with the image from the previous post may help. Try scrolling from one image to the other a couple times if your device allows it. You can see how the torso increases in length when the collarbones are elevated. Take notice how much space there is between the ribs and the glenohumeral joint. There are a lot of nerves that travel through there and they appreciate room to glide freely.

When the collarbones are elevated, you can see more of the anterior side of the shoulder blades. There’s also a lifting affect all the way down to the floating ribs. This gives the entire torso a greater sense of space.

Look at the space between the glenohumeral (shoulder) joint and the acromial arch (where the collarbone meets the shoulder blade) above it. Losing the ability to experience this space can lead to shoulder impingements and an inability to reach over our heads. It usually happens slowly over time. Reaching overhead daily can keep this space mapped in our experience. We’ll cover dead hanging and brachiation (reaching overhead) in a post in the near future.

The shoulder blades and collarbones have a tremendous amount of movement potential. Exploring how they move will ease neck tension, increase breath efficiency and improve function and rhythm of the arms. In the next post we’ll look at some of the nerves that travel from the neck down the arms to the hands.

Breathing room

Here’s a good opportunity to see how far the collarbones and shoulder blades place the glenohumeral joint away from the ribs. Look at how much space there is for the ribs to move up and out with the breath. Notice how the right humerus (on the left) is further away from the ribs and hangs down, whereas the left humerus (on the right) looks pulled in angling the bone out to the side. It’s possible this is purely due this particular person’s natural asymmetry, but I wonder if the right arm is mapped correctly and the left map is off a little bit. There’s no way to know for sure, but I would explore this difference with a client to see if there’s more space, ease and movement options to be found. There’s often more ease and space to be found.

When the arms arm mapped correctly, they hang down easily. When they are mismapped, the upper arm bones may angle out, putting unnecessary strain on the tissues of the neck, shoulders, chest and upper back while limiting breathing space. You may be able to stretch your way out of this, but correcting the map will help you find the forgotten ease you’re looking for.

Tomorrow we’ll look at how the space between the ribs and arms change when we move the collarbones upward.

It has the moves to help you feel groovy

Shrug your left shoulder up toward your ear. Pull it back and down and then bring it forward and up to your ear again, making a circle at your shoulder. Reverse directions, keeping your elbow relaxed and heavy. Sense how much range of motion the collarbone has. Feel how it moves the shoulder blade around on the back.

Bring your left collarbone up and your right one down. Bring your left collarbone back and your right one forward. Bring the left one down and the right one up. Finish the circle by bringing the left one forward and the right one back. Keep this motion going for a few repetitions. There’s a lot of potential independence between the collarbones and the ribs. Remember to reverse the directions.

Circling the collarbones is an important part of developing humeroscapular rhythm. That’s the rhythm between the upper arm bone and the shoulder blade. The collarbone isn’t named in the rhythm, but the rhythm can’t take place without it.

Next we’ll look at how our torso responds when our collarbones move.

The arm has 4 joints?

The arm is made up of 4 joints. The first one is at the sternoclavicular joint where the sternum meets the collarbone. The second is at the glenohumeral joint where the upper arm bone meets the shoulder blade. The third joint is at the elbow and the fourth and final joint is at the wrist. There are more joints and articulations involved but these are the major players. How do you have your arm mapped?  

Many people I’ve worked with think and act as though the first joint of the arm is at the glenohumeral joint. This orientation can work just fine for a lot of activities, but it leaves a lot of range of motion, versatility and nuance on the table. If your current map is leaving you feeling limited or uncomfortable, shifting how you perceive your arm may give you more options for movement. The image below is of the whole arm. See the collarbone connect at the sternum and the acromioclavicular joint of the shoulder blade?  

Using your fingers, find the where the collarbone meets the sternum (the SC joint). Take your time and feel around. Now, using your index finger, find the tip of your nose and then find the SC joint again. Was it easier to find your nose or SC joint? Go back and forth finding the tip of your nose and your SC joint. Most people can easily find the tip of their nose. When you can find your SC joint just as easily, this is a sign that you are on your way to having your arm mapped in this new way.

We’re going to spend the next week or so taking a closer look at the arm. We’ll look at joint sizes and locations, play with how the forearm rotates and discuss one of my favorite phrases, humeroscapular rhythm. We’ll map the hand and fingers while we’re at it. See you tomorrow.

Connecting with the ground (part 1)

In your mind, draw a line connecting the center of each point of contact on the foot below. It makes a triangle. In actuality, the lines would be curved a bit, making a funky looking triangle. The line on the left is the lateral longitudinal arch. The line across the top is the transverse arch and the line along the right is the medial longitudinal arch (the star of the Thankful ankles post). They make up the supporting structures of the foot. It makes sense the endpoints of these arches are the optimal points of contact we make with the ground. Let’s connect with them.

Can you locate each of these points? From a standing position, find the spot on your right heel, then move up the medial longitudinal arch to the ball of the foot and across the transverse arch to the little ball of the foot then back down the lateral longitudinal arch to the heel. Spend a minute connecting with these points and the space between them. Notice how the arches respond as you do this. It’s very organic movement. You can reverse directions if you like. Go for a little walk and compare how your freshly mapped foot feels in relation to the other foot and repeat the process there. Are you able to sense these points as you walk?

When you find yourself standing in line or from time to time, connect and balance these contact points. Notice if you have a tendency to bear more weight over the heels or balls of your feet. Maybe you stand more on the heel of one foot and the ball of another. Maybe it’s hard to feel or connect with one of these points. If that’s the case, give that point some extra attention and take notice of the result. You may find yourself making changes somewhere else in your body.

There’s a whole lot more a we can discuss about our feet, however, we are going to head up the body and take a closer look at the arms next. As we move along the arms and map the hands, we’ll revisit the toes and feet for a spell.

A Tale of two feet.

These images are from Thomas Myer’s book, Anatomy Trains. Some dancers refer to a ‘toe foot’ and a ‘heel foot.’ The medial arch supports the ‘toe foot’ and the lateral arch supports the ‘heel foot.’

See where the larger tibia bone connects with the toe side of the foot and the fibula bone connects more over the heel side? The image below is a front view of the tibia and fibula. It’s reversed, but it shows where the tibia joins the foot. Can you connect the dots?

In terms of function, the medial arch bones can be seen to be the major weight-bearing ‘canoe’, while the outer arch bones act like an ‘outrigger’, balancing and stabilizing but not bearing so much weight.

If you were paddling across the ocean, would you sit in the canoe or on the outrigger? This image makes a great case for using the ‘toe foot’ to bear weight and the ‘heel foot’ to refine balance and stabilize.

Next we’ll look at the 3 points of healthy contact of the foot and how they relate to the three arches.

Thankful ankles

Well, well, look what we have here, another arch! The image below is a medial view of the lower right leg. We talked curves and arches in the last two blogs, and as you probably know, our feet have arches too. Are you starting to get the idea that your body may be more springy than you give it credit for? The image below shows the medial longitudinal arch. It’s one of the 3 arches of the foot. The lateral longitudinal and anterior transverse arch aren’t shown here, but they are important nonetheless and will be discussed soon.

My main point here is to show how weight continues to be distributed down the spine, pelvis, hips and legs down to the ground. The majority of the weight is supported by the tibia bone and dispersed from behind the apex of this arch to the forefoot and heel. Notice how much space there is from the back of the heel to the ankle joint. The ankle joint is below the condyles on the tibia and fibula. Mapping the ankle correctly often gives the lower leg a greater sense of length and allows the foot a greater possibility for mobility.

Can you find your ankle joint? Using your thumb and index fingers, locate the condyles (bumps on the sides of your lower legs) and feel below them. Point, flex or circle your foot to find where the majority of the movement comes from. Explore one ankle for a minute and then stand up and go for a little walk. Sense how the mapped ankle moves compared to the unmapped ankle. Pay attention, it may be subtle. Repeat the mapping on the other side and then stand up and go about your day.

Ankle injuries and pain have a tendency to distort our bodymap and connection to the ground. Ensuring the integrity of the map can improve function of not only the foot, but the ankle, knee, hip and all the way up your spine. Next we’ll look at the foot from a dancer’s point of view.

The arch in the pelvis

There’s a weight bearing arch in the pelvis, do you see it? It’s where the bones are the thickest, leading us to the idea that thick bones are the body’s response to load. It’s a natural and adaptive response. Parts of the body that carry weight or receive impact on a regular basis will lay down more bone tissue to accommodate and strengthen them. This can work for or against us. In a properly functioning body, the bones will be thickest through their core. In a less efficiently functioning body, the bones will thicken away from their core, an example of this could be a bunion on one of our toes. Our bodies are constantly fluctuating and adapting to how we load them. Some adaptations are positive and some can be negative. I’ve seen people with debilitating bunions on their feet and toes. When they work at walking and standing in a more balanced way, the bunions begin to disappear. It takes a few months and there can be some genetic factors that make it more challenging. Do you see the possibility?

Look at the thickest parts of the bones in the image above. Can you make out the arch? Go back to a previous blog from February 4th 2021. It’s called, Weight bearing down the spine, pelvis and hips while sitting, standing and squatting. The arch is superimposed over the image. Follow the arch down the spine, across the sacrum, ischium and hips and down the powerful leg bones or into the sit bones, then come back here to see if it looks more clear.

The spine and pelvis were designed to bear and disperse weight. Notice how the femur bones angle in from the hips toward the knees. The leg bones don’t go straight down. It’s really one big arch making us structurally sound. Keep this powerful arch in mind. It goes all the way down to the ankles, feet and toes. We’ll talk about the ankles next.

Intelligently curved

The femur bone is an exquisite piece of the body. Let’s take a moment to appreciate a subtle part of it’s design. The image below is a sideview of the right leg. See how the femur bone is curved? It’s designed to be springy. If it were straight, it wouldn’t be able to disperse impact nearly as well. Look closer and you’ll see how the curve of the femur continues down through the tibia to the ankle.

From the hip, follow the curve of the femur bone past the knee into the tibia and down to the ankle. Can you see the “S” shape?

Now let’s look at the whole in the image below. Starting at the number 1, trace the spinal curve down through the cervicals, thoracics and lumbars to the sacrum. There’s a little gap at the tip of the tailbone. The curve of the femur bone picks up where the tailbone left off and continues down to the tibia bone and ankle. The tibia in this picture looks a little straighter than the one above, it’s subtle but it is curved.

Can you see how the whole skeleton has one continuous curve traveling through it? It gives the impression that our body is designed to be more springy and absorb and disperse more impact than we may think. Imprint this curved image into your bodymap. Think about it from time to time and notice the sense of ease and resiliency that emerges.

Now that we’ve talked about curves, let’s talk about arches. Next we’ll take a closer look at the pelvis.

On our way to happier knees

Let’s zero in on the bent knee in this image. See how the lower leg hangs when the knee joint is at 90 degrees? Try sitting somewhere your legs can dangle off the ground and swing a bit. A counter top or sturdy table or desk will work. Imagine where the knee joint is. For many people they have the knee joint mapped higher and behind the kneecap. This can give the impression of the tibia being longer and the femur bone shorter than they are. Using your fingers, reach down and find the actual knee joint. Feel how it hinges and swings below the femur (upper leg bone). Even small refinements to your knee map can help them function with greater ease.

How we walk can have a huge impact on our knees. More often than not, taking shorter strides and lifting the knees a touch higher can help them live a longer, healthier life. When you wish to walk faster, try increasing your rpms (speed at which your legs move) instead of increasing your stride length. Each person’s gait is unique and there’s a lot more too it, but I’ve found this to be a useful place to start.

Next we’ll take a closer look at the shape of femur bone and how it relates to the rest of the body.

Map your way to happy knees

Locked? Balanced? Bent? Can you guess where I like to spend most of my time? A lot of clients present themselves in my office with locked knees. This is often a protective mechanism initiated by low back pain. It’s interesting to explore how they are connected. Some clients present themselves with bent knees and very few show up with knees in balance. If you’ve been following the last 14 posts, you may be thinking it has something to do with how the head and neck are balanced. If it crossed your mind then know that I am applauding you right now. While it’s always worth while to check your head (and neck), the knees may need some corrective mapping.

Do you know where your knee joint is? Using the image above, focus in on the location of the knee cap and the knee joint. In the locked position the knee cap is dropped down in relation to the knee joint (the surrounding tissues are disengaged or over engaged). In the balanced position, the knee cap is a bit higher (the tissues are suspending it nicely). In the bent position the knee cap is above the joint (it’s engaged and ready to glide). If your knee is locked at any point while walking, the tissues are engaging and disengaging with every step. In the transition from locked to bent, the femur can rub against the back of the knee cap. Step by step, day by day this can lead to problems.

As you know by now, this is often a whole body issue. Let’s take a moment to simply map the knee and explore it’s balance. From a standing position, tighten your thigh muscles, intentionally locking your knees. Next, relax the thighs and move into a bent position. Somewhere between locked and bent is a nice, floaty balance point. Mindfully move your knees toward locked and bent until you feel the float. It may feel awkward, if it does you are probably on the right track. You may need to adjust how you are balancing over your feet and pelvis. Is your neck free and long?

Next, we’ll move deeper into knee mapping. It’s subtle yet powerful. A well mapped knee can prevent injuries or help them heal if injured.