I took a class on postural analysis yesterday.  I have done some of this work throughout my massage studies, but this was 6 hours devoted to it, which combined is more than I have had before.  In practice, I do incorporate a visual assessment into my work, but the practice of actual hands on assessment and writing it down will make a huge impact on my work.  Probably the best part of the class is having my own posture analyzed, since I have never really had that done.

I have often wondered whether one of my legs is longer than the other. A few years ago, I had an x-ray done and one side of my pelvis was substantially higher than the other.  Certainly musculature can cause this to happen, but it left me wondering nonetheless. I heard at some point that 10% of people do have structural differences in their leg lengths.  Apparently, a study done more recently by St. John Neuromuscular Therapy is revealing that the figure is more like 30-40%.

When I am hiking and really concentrating on body awareness and being balanced, I can feel how my gait is off, and how I actually can’t make my legs match.  I’ve also been noticing (and when I had sciatica this was super-pronounced) that my right leg is much more active than my left. To exaggerate, it is as if my right is doing all the work and my left is practically a crutch that keeps my right leg going.  I can’t really verbalize how I have felt more than that.

So,  luckily, I got to the be the demo person in this class. My postural challenges are certainly not extraordinary, but nonetheless, I felt quite validated in having my physical issues clearly defined and laid out.  I was really happy to see that I can actually FEEL a lot of the issues that have been identified AND my postural issues have actually improved in the last 5 years (thanks to bodywork and Pilates!)

The assessment DID include a likely difference in leg lengths, my left femur may be slightly shorter than my right, some rotational scoliosis and a unilaterally tilted pelvis.  A picture is worth a lot of words, so here it is:  The  diagonal lines represent a tilt towards one side or another, the horizontal arrows demonstrate my anterior/posterior swaying from the ideal gravitational plane, curved arrows represent a  rotation or inversion.  The red and green represent the applications to the assessment.