Moveprint: A guide to Neutral Posture and movement about joints.

THE SAUCE color: https://anthonymychal.com/arcade/moveprint/

Spinal column

Creating tension in your butt and your gut to center the pelvis and allow the spine to be its squiggly bent self.

First, pelvis.

level your pelvis from front to back and side to side. your pelvis is like a bowl filled with water. Keep the water in the bowl.

An anterior pelvic tilt (right) is when the front of the pelvis is rotated forward toward the floor; water spills from the front of the bowl. The lower back extends. This is also known as arching. A posterior pelvic tilt (left) is when the front of the pelvis is rotated toward the sky. Water spills from the back of the bowl. The lower back flexes. This is also known as rounding.

The pelvis can also tilt side-to-side (right). Your pelvis should be horizontally level (left). This sets a solid base for the rest of the spine.

Second, spine.

the rest of your spine assumes its natural curves: the lumbar spine (lower back) has a slightly concave curve, the thoracic spine (mid back) has a slightly convex curve, and the cervical spine (neck) has a slightly concave curve.

Even though the spine itself is squirmy, the output of neutral is anything but: the ribs should stack nicely over the hips. Think of your abdominal cavity like a cylinder, like a can of beer. In a neutral position, you have a nice straight cylinder.

Extra:

here’s a quick sequence you can use to center and level your pelvis:

Rise onto your tiptoes.
Squeeze your butt.

physically punch your butt to ensure it’s active. while you’re on your tiptoes, with your butt squeezed, take note of your abs.

chances are, your abs will be “on.” they will have some tension. you’d be able to take a punch to the gut. if your abs are soft and vulnerable, then give them some tension. poke and punch yourself in the gut, to ensure you’re contracting your abs.

when you’re on your tiptoes and you have tension in your butt and your gut, it’s almost impossible to have a pelvic tilt; you’ll be close to neutral.

you want to take this feeling to a regular standing position, so slowly lower your heels to the ground while trying to maintain tension in your butt and your gut. once your heels are on the ground, reduce tension in your butt and your gut to around 20% (you don’t want to be as tense as possible).

Further:

Toes

Flexion: toes up to nose
Extension: toes into ground.
Abduction: splaying toes apart.
Adduction: cramming toes together.

Ankles

Flexion: top of foot up to sky.
Extension: top of foot into ground.
Inversion: rotating bottom of foot inward.
Eversion: rotating bottom of foot outward.

Knees

Flexion: foot to butt.
Extension: kick a ball.
Internal tibial rotation: shin bone twists inward.
External tibial rotation: shin bone twists outward.

Hips

Flexion: lift thigh to sky.
Extension: push thigh backward behind body.
Abduction: lift thigh sideways away from body.
Adduction: squeeze thigh across body.
Internal rotation: thigh twists inward.
External rotation: thigh twists outward.

Further:

Lumbar, thoracic, cervical:

Flexion = rounding vertebrae toward floor.

Extension = arching vertebrae toward sky.

Bending (lateral flexion) = dropping vertebrae sideways toward floor.

Thoracic:

Rotation = torso twists side to side

Shoulder girdle

Widening through the collarbone to set the shoulder blades in position.

first, shoulder blades.

upper arms are pulled into their sockets to set the shoulder blades.

further:

shoulder blades:

protraction = gliding forward.

retraction = gliding backward.

elevation = gliding upward.

depressing = gliding downward.

upward rotation = bottom shoulder blade twisting out, top shoulder blade twisting in.

downward rotation = top shoulder blade twisting down, bottom shoulder blade twisting in.

Extra:

setting the shoulders is difficult to describe through text, but here’s my go: imagine looping a tight band around your shoulders. the band would squeeze your shoulders into your chest, forcing your shoulder blades to protract (crushed toward the front midline of your body).

the opposite of this (and how most people incorrectly try to fix their so-called “bad” posture) is with shoulder-blade retraction, which is squeezing the shoulder blades together toward the back midline of the body.

to set your shoulders, think about stretching the band around your shoulders horizontally and becoming as wide as possible without adducting your upper arms. think about widening through the collarbones; imagine if someone had a measuring tape going from one end of your collarbone to the other with the objective to stretch the measurement as far as you can.

for perspective, look at the difference between the two photos below. you can see the muscular differences between setting the shoulders and retracting the shoulder blades.

Arms & hands

Description

first,

arms down by your side with the pit of the elbows facing forward. wrists rotated so the thumb faces forward.

Further:

Fingers

Flexion = fingers into palm.

Extension = fingers away from palm.

Abduction = splaying fingers apart.

Adduction: cramming fingers together.

Wrist

Radial deviation = close angle between thumb and forearm.

Ulnar deviation = close angle between pinky and forearm.

Flexion = close angle between palm and forearm.

Extension = close angle between backhand and forearm.

Shoulder

Flexion = lift upper arm in front of body to sky.

Extension = lift upper arm behind body to sky.

Abduction = lift arm sideways to sky.

Adduction = squeeze arm sideways toward midline.

Internal rotation = twist upper arm away from midline.

External rotation = twist upper arm toward midline.

Extra:

you can get the pit of the elbows more forward-facing by “screwing” your upper arm into its socket with some external rotation. to do this, it’s useful to distinguish between the lower arm and the upper arm.

the lower arm is the “forearm,” whereas the upper arm is the “arm.” distinguishing between the two is important because your forearm rotates independently of your upper arm.

forearm rotation consists of wrist pronation and wrist supination. if you bend your elbow at a 90° angle and rotate your wrist to hold a bowl of soup, you’re supinating. if you rotate your wrist to swat a fly, you’re pronating.

rotation of the upper arm is different and is easiest seen by looking at the elbow cavity, which is also known as the eye of the elbow.

if you pronate and supinate your wrist, the eye of the elbow won’t move. if you rotate your upper arm, your eye WILL move. check out the picture below. i’m rotating my forearm. the green arrow pointing at my elbow cavity doesn’t change location, yet my wrist position does.

on the contrary, when i rotate my upper arm, the green arrow DOES change location.

pending your current flexibility and mobility, your eblow capacity may adopt a forward-facing position without thought. most people, however, will need to externally rotate their upper arms in order to reach neutral, thanks to sitting in chairs, typing on keyboards, and fiddling with phones,

rotating your upper arm, screwing your arm into its socket while keeping your shoulders set, will bring your elbow cavity to a more forward-facing position.

Neck & head

Description

retraction

rotation

side bend

second, tuck your chin into your neck, and then retract your head. you want to make sure that your head is centered over your body. don’t let your forehead fall forward.

falling forehead is common when you’re just starting to get a feel for packing. you can gauge this by dropping a vertical line from your ear. your ear should be above your shoulder, not ahead of your shoulder.