Hip and Spine Disassociation

Many of the clients who attend Principle Four Osteopathy for the treatment of an injury or advice around exercise prescription often show and demonstrate poor body awareness and movement.  A great example of this is the pelvic tilt.  Whilst many people might say that this is very easy to do, in actual fact many people often struggle to disassociate this movement between the hip and spine.  What does this matter?  I would argue that many people who have poor body awareness and control often move inefficiently and perhaps may be moving in ways (when performed repetitively, for long periods of time over many years) may be increasing their risk of developing musculoskeletal strains and sprains.  Many people who are unable to hip hinge and perhaps bend from the back primarily with manual handling, when performed repetitively over many years are probably putting themselves at a higher risk of developing a lower back injury.  Therefore as part of my treatment and management of clients, often I will have them look to learn and develop their body awareness and look to learn how to perform a variety of movements across the hips and back i.e. bend, twist, hip hinge, squat etc so that they can then look to vary movements throughout the body and avoid repeated movement patterns as well as provide them with options to adapt and change as they feel.

In the videos below you will see a couple of progressions of having someone learn to disassociate hip and spine movement.  The first step is often pelvic tilting standing and then looking to be able to progress this to other positions.  Osteopath Heath Williams has chosen a supported hip hinge position with a pelvic tilt as an example.

 

This blog post was written by osteopath Heath Williams of Principle Four Osteopathy.  Heath has a particular interest in exercise rehabilitation and strength and conditioning.  He has completed ASCA Level 2 Strength and Conditioning Course, Powerlifting Association Level 1 Coaching Course, FMS and many more.  For all of your injury treatment and management needs, touch base with us at www.principlefourosteopathy.com.  Principle Four Osteopathy are one of Melbourne City CBD and Docklands leading osteopathy clinics.