The pelvis has the potential to move in an infinite number of planes. It is connected to all the largest, most powerful muscles in the body.

The pelvis is central to all movement. It is affected by your individual moral judgments and social codes of conduct perhaps more than any other part of your body.

The pelvis is capable of an almost infinite number of directions and qualities of movement, as rich as language itself. It’s a tragic waste of potential both on an individual and social level to see so many people restrict the pelvis to a fraction of its capabilities.

The role of the pelvis to deal with biochemical and gravitational forces is relegated to second place behind the expression of guilt, shame, hygiene issues, morality, insecurity and other emotionally based social statements.

The great variance of use and posturing of the pelvis shows us more about people’s beliefs, attitudes and security than it does function.

Your movement vocabulary is limited to the literacy of your pelvis.

Your pelvis is held in a certain way that predisposes it to move in all your favorite ways and offers resistance to things you would rather not do.

The body is smart and knows how you don’t use parts and so tends to use these less active areas to store fat.

Why do we limit the amount and way we use something so central to all we do? Why would most people prefer to put up with dreadful inefficiency making almost everything difficult rather than expand the literacy of their pelvises? Who and why are you restraining the movement or function of your pelvis for?

• Limiting the sensations and feelings that arise from the pelvis through sexual guilt, fear or obsession etc.
• The heightened emotions evoked when pelvic independence first developed for example while toilet training.
• Making dysfunctional adjustments for the sake of appearance. Such as the type of restrictions imposed upon the pelvis during puberty — a result of the exaggerated social importance focused on the pelvis at a time when we are most socially vulnerable.
• Functional use of the pelvis is often overshadowed by social obsession of genitally oriented sexual performance.
• And countless other reasons

If the pelvis is busy expressing sexual disdain or some other value or belief system then it can’t be available for its primary function - organizing your biomechanical forces in relation to gravity.

If the prime mover (your pelvis) is fixed or doing something else the structures above and below the pelvis must overwork to compensate for the inaction of the pelvis. Overwork and uneven distribution of work in the body causes damage and compromises form and security.

Free fluent movement of the pelvis allows the structures above and below to happily function in all planes. A stubborn pelvis will force the knee to bend in a way it doesn’t want to, enforcing the conditioning of sheering stresses or similar damage.

When the pelvis is free to move and respond to the changing environment the knees and lower back are not forced into planes of action that damage soft tissue. The high incidence of back and knee pain is proportional to social ignorance of basic pelvic function.

When the pelvis is primarily used as a functional, structural entity instead of a social and emotional indicator the destructive abuse of knees and backs will greatly diminish. pb.

©Australian Feldenkrais center