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BODYREADING THE MERIDIANS prominent anteriorly (Image 4B), this often goes with laterally rotated femurs and a tucked-under pelvis—but not always. In any case, if the adductors have migrated significantly in either direction, they need to be guided back to their place—neither substituting for the quads or hamstrings, but providing an adaptable balance for all these groups (Image 4C). LATERAL PELVIC TILT The one thing the adductors cannot do is abduct, so the last of the reciprocal relationships between the DFL and the Lateral Line in the leg involves lateral pelvic tilt— abduction versus adduction. Again, this is one label for a possible multitude of patterns—pelvic torque, upslip, or a pelvic rotation on the heads of the femurs. But if you see one hip significantly higher than the other, it is worth remembering that the abductors on the low hip side will be myofascially short (which makes sense), and that also the adductors on the high hip side will be short as well, which is a bit more counterintuitive— until you realize that the hip joint on the high hip side is adducted, so, of course, those adductors would shorten to accommodate. Then, they get fascially stuck over years of holding them this way (Images 5A and 5B, page 102). PELVIC FLOOR AND TRANSVERSUS ABDOMINIS Much has been said about the pelvic floor and its northern neighbor in the abdominal balloon—the transversus abdominis. These two sets of closely related muscles form the muscular bowl at the bottom of the ventral cavity. Many claim they can see what is going on with these muscles from the outside, but I can be of no help here on visual assessment. In my own practice, these muscular units need to be felt to be assessed. Since we are talking visual, not palpatory assessment here, we will leave this massively important part of the core to your knowing hands and move on to the "cobra." PSOAS-DIAPHRAGM BALANCE In my world, the psoas and diaphragm are part of one entity. At least let us consider them so for these few paragraphs. The psoas roots the diaphragm to the legs—where these two muscles meet is where walking and breathing meet, where grounding and lift intersect. If you view these muscles from the side, you can imagine them to be two cobras—one left and one right (Image 6A, page 102). The tail of the cobra is wound around the neck of the femur, passes in front of the head of the femur in the hip joint, and sweeps back behind the organs to blend into the part of the diaphragm that goes to the dome of the central tendon under each lung, which forms the hood and head of each cobra. A 4 In 4A, the adductors have migrated back to take over hamstring function; in 4B, they have migrated forward; and in 4C, they are about right. B C Celebrate ABMP's 25th anniversary and you may win a refund on your membership. ABMP.com. 101