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DIMENSIONS OF ALIGNMENT THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONCEPT An early observation from Judith Aston, a pioneer in the field of human movement and body mechanics, was that regardless of how well people were trained into a "correct" alignment, they would only hold that posture when they were consciously on their "best behavior." The correct posture seemed to be a forced position, involving appreciable tension, which often made people look stiff, uncomfortable, and less like themselves. Aston's question, then, was why, if a posture is supposed to be correct and good for us, is it so difficult to maintain? Why don't we see people naturally assuming this pattern? Aston's investigations followed her keen sense of dimension and proportion and were based on her knowledge of both functional and expressive forms of movement. What has evolved today is an empirical understanding of human alignment that achieves delicate balance of the body structure and allows for easy and less effortful movement assisted by the forces of gravity and ground reaction force. Looking at the familiar anatomical charts that describe the three planes of the body, the coronal plane is seen to bisect the body in halves: front and back. Using this as a reference, correct alignment seen from a side view may be described as a straight line, perpendicular to the earth, running through the ear, shoulder, mid-trunk, hip, knee, and lateral maleous. This representation of the body fits the model that describes the body structure in terms of straight lines and perpendicular planes. Key in Aston's view of alignment is the departure from the idea of a single line through points on the body to a three-dimensional concept of the body. The concept describes shapes rather than perpendicular planes. Her paradigm visualizes the body as a series of three-dimensional segments that are supported from the ground up. Each body segment has an inherent optimal shape, differing somewhat from person to person, depending on their genetic makeup and personal history. The optimal placement of these parts is determined by first imagining the center of the mass of each segment, then considering how it would be best positioned over the segment below for its support and to support the segment above. When the structure is at its best, no single part "borrows" space from another, "beer belly," the dimension of depth may be greater than the dimension of width, and the depth to the front can be described as being greater than the depth to the back. Each individual segment can also be described in terms of these three dimensions. This is helpful in understanding the relationship of the segments to each other and to the whole body. In Aston-Patterning, the external three dimensions describe the shape of the being, creating the boundaries When the structure is at its best, no one part "borrows" space from another, nor does it compromise the movement of another segment. nor does it compromise the movement of another segment. The goal of this three-dimensional alignment is to balance the body over the feet in such a way that the whole structure can move together cooperatively. Aston uses the three aspects of dimension to describe body segments. Those aspects are: length (the space from head to foot), width (the space through the body from side to side), and depth (the space through the body anterior to posterior). A person who is tall and thin can be described as having greater length, less width, and perhaps even less depth. A person who is short and heavy may be described as having less length and greater overall width and depth. If the heaviness takes the form of a 66 massage & bodywork january/february 2009 for the internal dimension. It is the inner space created by these parameters that is vitally important to consider. This space is referred to as internal volume. The internal volume contains all the body structures and organs and can be thought of as the space in which they operate. Where the space is compromised, function is also compromised. The analogy of a balloon can be used to better understand internal volume. The outside of the balloon shapes the space inside. If the balloon is pressed on one side, the space inside is changed—flattened or indented on the side under pressure. The pressure pushes into the space and increases the dimension of the opposite side. If