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70 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k j a n u a r y / f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 9 4A: We are looking for a reciprocal relationship between the respiratory and pelvic diaphragm. We see good balance here. 4B: A popular postural choice drops the weight of the chest on the back of the pelvis. 4C: When the cobra's nose falls, awakening and exercise needs to accompany any myofascial work. 4D: When the cobra exposes its throat, gentle and progressive upward psoas release is called for to ease ribs down and restore a full breath. 4A 4B 4C 4D neck of the femur. It is a bit of an exaggeration of anatomy to wrap the snake's tail a few times as we did in Image 1, but functionally, that's how it works. Then, like a cobra rising out of a basket, the psoas goes forward to cross directly over the front of the ball to stabilize the hip joint. It then crosses over the pelvic lip, only to dive behind the organs (retroperitoneal) to fi ll the gully between the transverse processes and the bodies of the lumbar vertebrae. You can often count 20 or so separate attachments for the psoas major when you dissect it carefully, with attachments to all of the bodies, discs, and transverse processes of the lumbar spine, often reaching up to T11–T12. In doing so, the psoas major interfaces with the posterior portion of the diaphragm. Most anatomy atlases scrape the fascia off, making a clean separation between the two, leaving little arcs of fascia along the bottom of the diaphragm, looking like the arcs of fabric between the ribs of an umbrella. We, the viewers of these clean anatomy pictures, get the impression that the two work separately. In our Anatomy Trains fascial dissections, however, we fi nd the psoas and diaphragm intersect where the "umbrella" of the diaphragm ties down into its stem—the crura that hold the center of the diaphragm down the front of the lumbar spine. When we pull manually on the psoas, the diaphragmatic dome on the same side changes shape because they are blending into each other intimately, fascially, and thus in transmitting the tension. It is only after you peel off all the connecting tissues that you get the "clean" separated picture we see so often in the atlases. The hood and head of each cobra is each of the domes of the diaphragm, left and right, which connect to the psoai, left and right. In other words, there are two cobras, one on each side. The tip of each cobra's nose rests right where the outside edge of your rectus abdominis crosses onto the rib cage, about the end of the 6th or 7th rib. In anatomical terms, we have defi ned a cobra- like confi guration that combines each psoas with its corresponding dome of the diaphragm. This two-muscle complex coordinates from our legs over the pelvic ring to the low back and breath. (Images 3A & 3B). Above this, the ribs and head take their cue from the angle of