Opening the Four Corners of the Body

Think of the torso as a flexible rectangle with the shoulder and hip joints as the ‘corners.’ As weight is borne by the arms and legs, these "corners" spread that weight through the body along the strongest lines of force. If the strain is too much, or if the joints are imbalanced so that the weight is not distributed properly, the joints press inward and impinge upon the organs within the torso, and suffering damage themselves as well. Moreover, the burden of carrying the weight falls more directly on your back, which isn’t built to take that kind of stress.

The joints are supported by two structures – the shoulder and pelvic girdles – which act as stabilizers for bearing weight. The shoulder girdle is shaped like a yoke; a yoke simply extends the shoulder girdle outward to help the carrier bear more weight. The pelvic girdle is much the same. It too is a center of power, a foundation for the spine that distributes the weight of the body to the legs.

The joints are ‘open’ when these structures are oriented properly relative to the spine and the muscles are conditioned to bring the greatest mobility, resilience and freedom from tension. The most obvious example of when this is not the case is when one has ‘rounded’ shoulders – the shoulders are rolled forward and down, straining the neck muscles, and interfering with the work of organs such as the lungs and heart. The arms have far less range of motion, and the shoulders are far more susceptible to injury.

So ‘opening’ these joints depends upon two things:

-- ideal placement of the bone in the joint, and orientation of its supporting structure relative to the spine.

All too often because of misalignment of the shoulder girdle or pelvis, the head of the armbone or thighbone rubs against the side of the joint. This affects circulation and the flow of energy through the joint, while wearing down the connective tissues in the joint and injuring the surrounding muscles.

Balanced muscular action:

-- equal strength and tone of the muscles on all sides of a joint, which keeps the bone aligned and the joint stable, allowing full range of motion.

The muscles surrounding the joint have the job of keeping the bone in its proper place. In an imbalanced or misaligned joint the muscles have a harder time doing this. Their response is usually to stiffen, hardening the muscle on the short side to hold things in place and stabilize the joint – which has the effect of further weakening the opposing muscles on the other side of the joint. This leads to a vicious cycle in which alignment – i.e. ‘posture’ – gets even worse, creating further cycles of stiffness and deterioration in the muscles.

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