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BODYREADING THE MERIDIANS SBL SFL Rectus capitis lateralis Obliquus capitis inferior As the SBL tightens, the skeleton is pushed forward against the SFL, creating an arch. "Where you see a bow, look for the bowstring." —Thomas Myers shift of the pelvis. All of the folks who manifest this pattern have a shortened bowstring in the SBL that needs easing and lengthening (Image 13). On top of the pelvis, there is usually a swayback and a posterior tilt of the rib cage. The heads in Image 12 may appear to be on top of the body, but look again. Their rib cages are all leaning back (posteriorly tilted in our BodyReading language). If you turn the page so their rib cages are straight up and down, you will see how they are hiding a head-forward posture with this arching bow pattern. Finally, we come to the very top of the neck—a very vulnerable place in human anatomy. As we noted, both the SBL and SFL pull down on the back of the head. The SFL, as we noted last time, pulls from the sternocleidomastoid down over the sternum into the belly and hips. The SBL pulls down along all the long and short back muscles. Right under your head are the tiny suboccipital muscles—very important orientation muscles that are hardwired to your eyes (Image 14). Roll your thumbs under your The tiny suboccipitals are the functional center of the SBL and are commonly functioning suboptimally in Western adult bodies. occiput and move your eyes in a circle to feel these muscles in action—even if you don't move your head, these muscles follow your eye movements, ready to coordinate your neck and spine movements to your eyes at a moment's notice. If you hear a snake's rattle or a lion's growl, your eyes follow your ears, your neck follows your eyes, and the spine follows the neck in rapid succession—reflexively, without you thinking about it. But in human upright posture, the larger muscles of the SFL and SBL can overcome these tiny ancient righting muscles, and one of three things happen, none of them optimal: 1. The head moves down and forward on the body (i.e., head-forward posture). In our BodyReading terminology, we call this anterior shift of the head relative to the rib cage. 2. The head tilts back on the neck—what we would call a posterior tilt of the head. This approach tends to shut down these small orientation muscles in the back of the neck, and to fix the way in which we look through the eyes. This is a very common pattern for people who wear glasses. 3. The head moves forward in the atlanto-occipital joint—an anterior shift of the occiput on the atlas. This is a tiny but pernicious movement that locks these muscles, limits eye movements, and tends to tie up the entire spinal posture. This is a difficult compensation to see right away because the actual postural distortion is very small, but the effects are very large. While the plantar fascia, hamstrings, lumbosacral fascia, and the erector muscles are much stronger and fascially more dense than these tiny muscles at the top of the neck, freeing these suboccipital muscles—which are the functional center of the SBL even though they are located near its upper end—is key to the proper primary and secondary wave balance of the SBL. Trains (Elsevier, 2009) and Fascial Release for Structural Balance (North Atlantic, 2010). Myers studied with Ida Rolf and has practiced integrative bodywork for more than 35 years. He directs Kinesis, which offers more than 100 professional certifications and continuing education seminars per year worldwide. For more information, visit www.anatomytrains.com. Thomas Myers is the author of Anatomy tune in to your practice at ABMPtv 81